Imagine the wide-eyed shock and despair that would have followed if you open your favorite social media app and suddenly it goes blank, you’ve lost access you may not regain forever. TikTok Creators and influencers in the United States woke up on Sunday, January 19th to a nightmare no one understood how to deal with. The TikTok ban was real and the future of the platform in the US now hangs by a thread.
The United States is not the first country to effect a ban on TikTok for national security reasons. Indians on the 29th of June 2020 woke up to the same shocking reality.
TikTok had democratized fame in a way no other social media platform had. Overnight stardom has become a common story, with creators like Missouri teenager Taylor Cassidy gaining massive followings through engaging content like her “Fast Black History” series. TikTok empowered ordinary people to become global sensations. However, despite all these benefits, regulators are particularly concerned about the App’s ties to its parent company, ByteDance, and the potential risks of sensitive user data falling into the hands of foreign adversaries.
The battle line was drawn when TikTok Chief Executive Officer Shou Chew failed to convince congressmen that TikTok isn’t a secret spying tool for China and that he’s originally from Singapore and not China. It’s been a dramatic scene ever since. This led to U.S. President Joe Biden signing a national security law blocking the app’s operations in America, a move recently upheld by the Supreme Court.
But the drama doesn’t end there, elected President Donald Trump has pledged to revisit the matter. Ironically, Trump attempted to ban TikTok in 2020 for similar national security reasons. This time, however, he’s signaling a willingness to weigh in more strategically. This temporal relief has granted the platform the authoritative signal needed to return online after a few hours of blackout.
While others mull about it, the sale of TikTok signals some win for Silicon Valley billionaires. Some buyers are already waiting for the auction to begin. While it is not stated whether China will allow a sale or assume the US would give in eventually, reports show a sale might be inevitable. For that reason, there has been news of the X Chief Elon Musk coming in as a buyer or broker. Project Liberty billionaire Frank McCourt has vowed to buy the App, without the algorithm.
The battle has been lost at the Supreme Court but it’s not over yet. While TikTok cited the free Amendments as a backing, Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch made it clear that considering the enormity of data that the social media giant is in control of and the susceptibility to foreign adversaries, it deserves being treated as an exception. Arguments aimed at changing the court’s stance regarding the matter proved futile. Once a threat to national security comes to the fore, every country wants to treat it with utmost urgency and importance.
The ultimate fate of TikTok now rests in the hands of Trump. Will he be able to find a middle ground, or allow a sale that keeps the platform alive in the US? Would Elon Musk swoop in and add TikTok to his X ecosystem? For now, the future of the App remains unpredictable.
