Due to TikTok being seen as a national security threat because of its foreign ownership, a bill was approved by the House of Representatives regarding banning the app.
There is an unclear future for TikTok as the bill moves to the Senate to be voted on next.
If the bill is passed and signed by the president, it will require the owners of TikTok to either divest and sell the app within six months or the U.S. government will ban it nationwide.
Northwestern University professor Michael A. Spikes, who researches and teaches media literacy education, can understand the bill’s purpose.
“Knowing that China is a country that tends to play a big role in shaping the information that you get in that country, there could be some concerns around it. However, taking the step of trying to ban the app is sort of like taking a sledge-hammer to the issue,” Spikes said.
Souderton resident Staci Zikul is unhappy about the legislation since she finds TikTok to be the easiest to use.
“That’s my go-to social media site. I think it’s very user friendly versus Instagram,” Zikul said.
If the app were to be sold to an American company, Zikul could still see herself using it.
“It could change a lot depending on who takes over, but right now you can see there’s tons of users who aren’t going to be happy if it does get banned,” Zikul said.
University of Oregon professor Kelli Matthews does not believe that banning or selling the app would help solve the problems related to data sharing.
“There’s a ton of misinformation on TikTok for sure, but there’s a ton of misinformation, data sharing and selling on every platform,” Matthews said. “The stated problem around data information gathering and sharing is not unique to TikTok.”
According to Spikes, the same issues regarding data privacy and security are present in American companies and other digital platforms.
“The issues around collecting data, data privacy and the use and sharing of that data are still huge issues that I don’t think this step in particular fixes,” Spikes said.
According to junior Emma Conklin many people’s routines would change if the app were to be banned.
“There are people who make a living off of their status on TikTok. There’s people who blew up on the app and that’s how they make money now. For other normal teens, it’ll definitely affect their daily lives because there are people who use it constantly,” Conklin said.
While TikTok being banned could affect many influencers and business owners who rely on the app for income, Matthews believes it could be a “bigger deal” for people who consume content on the app because of “misinformation and disinformation” on it.
“I think Gen-Z is the primary audience on TikTok, but the high school and college age are using TikTok as a search engine, and that consumption of content on TikTok is a big deal. Because there’s such a concentrated audience of Gen-Z and probably younger millennials, I think it’s important to figure out how it’s affecting information consumption and how it would continue to do so, and how to continue to support media and digital literacy,” Matthews said.
Penn State freshman Caia Vega believes that the claim being made with the bill is “far-reaching.”
“It’s a reach because every social media kind of functions similarly in the sense that it uses your data to build a feed for you for what you want to see. That’s how it works,” Vega said. “They’re using that to leak information.”
According to Conklin, who regularly uses TikTok, she speculates that TikTok isn’t a danger to the U.S.
“I don’t necessarily think it’s being used for harmful purposes,” Conklin said.