More and more countries are trying to push the ban on TikTok, a video-sharing app whose primary demographic lies within Gen-Z, the most recent attempted legislation by R. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri failing in the Senate this month. This continued attempt – which most recently led to the successful ban by NATO on its staffers – is not unfamiliar to the world. But what prompted this response to the popular app?
The central reason for this response is because of TikTok’s Chinese ownership. The app’s parent company, ByteDance, has been accused of sending user data – such as user’s location – to the Chinese government, citing laws that allow the Chinese government to forcibly retrieve data from its companies. TikTok has denied these allegations, even as CEO Shou Chew was interrogated by the U.S. House of Representatives.
While some individual states have initiated bans, the federal government as a whole has not instigated any definitive action toward a ban. It was, however, recently announced that the Biden Administration was conducting a review on TikTok, after years of consistent suspicion. TikTok announced that it “submitted a 90-page proposal detailing how it planned to operate in the United States while addressing national security concerns.” There are currently no updates as to the response to this report.
There is no doubt that TikTok is one of, if not the, most defining utilities of the modern age. Its influence is prevalent, especially but not limited to the younger generations. The controversy currently against it is an example of how politically driven dispute plagues various global sectors. Though the Senate didn’t ban the app now, this is just the start of the battle to ban TikTok. Hawley, individual states, and many more entities have made their intent to ban clear, and there is no question that this topic will continue to plague our news cycles.
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