TikTok has become an integral part of most of our lives in recent years. For influencers, it is their livelihood. For businesses, TikTok is an important advertising app that brings in many consumers. For average users, like me, it is an app that makes me laugh, sometimes cry, and puts me to sleep every night.
TikTok has been in the news once again as the United States House of Representatives has recently passed a bill that could potentially ban TikTok. It has caused quite a stir among brands, influencers, and consumers. But is a ban actually likely? Are we all freaking out for no reason?
A Short History of TikTok
TikTok, owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance, first became popular in Southeast Asia in 2017. ByteDance bought Musical.ly — another short-form video app, owned by an American company — in November 2017, merged it with TikTok in 2018, and launched it to the United States where it quickly gained popularity. By October of 2018, TikTok surpassed Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube in downloads. By February 2019, TikTok reached one billion installs on Google Play and the App Store. Now, as of January 2024, TikTok has amassed almost 150 million active users in the United States— the most of any other country in the world. ByteDance also owns CapCut, a popular video editing app and TikTok’s sister company.
2020: the first attempt
This is not the first time that the U.S. government has made an attempt to ban TikTok. Back in 2020, former President Donald Trump signed an executive order that gave U.S.-based companies — specifically Microsoft — 45 days to make a deal to buy TikTok. The deal with Microsoft fell through, but Oracle, a computer software company, swooped in and became TikTok’s U.S. technology partner. Oracle would be there to ensure that U.S. TikTok is independent of the Chinese Communist Party and protect U.S. user data. This was part of Project Texas, which is a $1.5 billion plan to make “every American on TikTok feel safe, which confidence that their data is secure and the platform is free from outside influence.” TikTok’s U.S. user data began routing to Oracle in June of 2022.
2023: Congressional Hearing
In March of 2023, TikTok CEO Shou Chew appeared before the U.S. Congress to defend the company against more scrutiny about how it uses U.S. data and its suspected ties to the Chinese Communist Party. This fiery five-hour hearing was hostile the entire time. There was bipartisan support for banning the app, as well as a bipartisan sentiment that Chew was unconvincing in his efforts to prove his company’s independence from China. Congress cited concerns about TikTok’s impact on children as well. Dangerous challenges and trends can “exacerbate feelings of emotional distress” and promote “suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders.”
In May 2023, Montana became the first state to sign legislation that would ban TikTok. The ban would have gone into effect on Jan. 1, 2024, but it was blocked by a federal judge in November 2023. The judge said the ban was an infringement of constitutional rights of TikTok users. Currently, TikTok is only banned on U.S. government devices nationwide.
2024: what now?
On March 13, 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would result in the nationwide ban of TikTok if ByteDance doesn’t sell the app to an American company within six months. The bill passed with bipartisan support, 352-65.
If ByteDance does not sell, the app will be banned from the App Store, Google Play, and other services until a sale occurs. As of 2023, TikTok was valued at $84 billion. Finding a buyer with a price that high is easier said than done. It could be much longer than six months before ByteDance makes a deal with an American company.
Of course, ByteDance does not have to worry about finding a buyer if the bill does not pass in the Senate. It’s unclear what the Senate will decide. Though President Joe Biden’s campaign just joined TikTok in February and has been consistently active on the app, Biden has said that he will sign the bill if the Senate passes it.
Former President Trump — who first spearheaded the campaign to ban TikTok — now opposes the ban, saying that it will make Facebook more powerful. Facebook, he says, is an “enemy of the people.”
There’s no question that a TikTok ban would have negative impacts on influencers, brands, and consumers. Many influencers rely on TikTok to make money. Brands rely on TikTok as an important form of advertising. Small businesses will no longer be able to take advantage of how easy it is to go viral on the app. A ban could significantly decrease their reach to wider audiences. The ban may also raise a legal and constitutional issue: is a TikTok ban a violation of the First Amendment right to free speech? This question will surely be answered in the courts if the ban becomes law.
The takeaway: a full TikTok ban is not likely in the near future, if at all. It is unclear how the Senate will vote, and it is also unclear if the ban will hold up in courts if ByteDance decides to take legal action (which they most likely will). In the meantime, though, businesses and creators who rely on TikTok for their livelihood should start thinking about how they could continue to reach their audiences should the ban take place.