The countdown for the date set to ban TikTok from all app stores barring a transaction of the software to an American company is coming ever closer, as it is currently January 1, 2025. If this ban does indeed happen, it would leave TikTok devastated without its largest audience in the USA.
This is not the first time the U.S. federal government tried to ban TikTok. In 2020, former president Donald Trump attempted to ban TikTok by use of executive order. Trump’s order was overturned on the basis of its constitutionality by various courts in the U.S. Since then, Trump has made it a goal for the complete ban of TikTok, but he seems to have reversed that position as of recently. President Biden on the other hand has pushed for a ban and was a driving force behind the spending bill that put the possibility of a ban in place. Few members of Congress have spoken out against the ban.
TikTok is the largest part of a major portfolio of companies owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. The US government is concerned that the Chinese Communist Party may use data gathered by ByteDance through TikTok to spy on Americans. TikTok argues that they are unfairly being singled out because of the amount of traction they have gained and the fact that many American companies also steal users’ data. TikTok also argues that a potential ban would be a breach of free speech, which would be in direct violation of the First Amendment. However, many law experts have argued that TikTok falls under a different set of rules than American companies due to their parent company being Chinese. This and the fact that many courts are reluctant to overturn federal law seems to signify that TikTok would lose any lawsuit against the Federal Government. A ban would not be completely unprecedented, however, seeing that TikTok is already banned in multiple other countries, most notably India. Legislators in Montana also previously banned all federal employees from using TikTok. The ban was part of a bipartisan spending bill, lowering the chances of an overturn.
The outcome of the current court battle will in all likelihood decide the fate of TikTok within the United States. This outcome is not looking very bright for TikTok due to the increasing probability of a once seemingly impossible ban.
