On April 24, Biden said that he had finally signed legislation to ban or force the sale of the social media app, TikTok. This is an app run by China and has a lot of safety concerns surrounding it. The U.S. lawmakers are worried about the data security and harmful content that is being shown on this app. Lawmakers think that it is the Chinese government’s plan to secure data about American’s and spy on America. This provision has given ByteDance, around 9 months to sell Tiktok, or the app will face a national ban across America. TikTok has over 170 million U.S. users.
If the national ban on TikTok happens, the app most likely would not disappear from your phone. The app would disappear from all app stores, so people that are not on the app will not be able to download it. TikTok would also not be able to send out app updates, new security, or bug fixes. If they aren’t able to send out those things the app would be unusable over time. Users on TikTok might be able to mask their locations using private networks, VPNs, etc., so it would not show they were from the United States.
These lawmakers have also been recieveing a lot of threatening messages from people regarding the possible ban of this app. The U.S Capitol Police are investigating threatening and aggressive calls that have been made about this. The earliest ban that could happen on this app is January 19, 2025, with a additional 90 days if needed.
