American officials have been warning for years about the risks of TikTok, but it’s been mostly talk and little action.
This week, though, a new law will likely give the United States government the authority to try to ban one of the most popular apps in the country. (The key word is “try.”)
Is this it for TikTok and those of you who use the social app? Should you delete it and walk away from your communities or livelihood on TikTok? Read on.
IS TIKTOK REALLY GOING TO BE BANNED?
Not yet.
Congress passed legislation on Tuesday that’s an ultimatum to TikTok’s owner, the Chinese technology giant ByteDance: Sell to a company that isn’t Chinese within about a year or face a ban on the app in the United States.
President Biden issued a statement minutes after the Senate vote saying he plans to sign the bill into law on Wednesday. Even if he does, TikTok is likely to challenge the new law in court.
Legal experts have said a potential ban as it’s written may violate Americans’ First Amendment rights by outlawing an app they use for free expression. The legal experts also cautioned the government may be overstepping the Constitution by targeting a single company it dislikes. Previous attempts to ban Chinese apps including TikTok have stalled in court.
Any ban on TikTok in the United States, then, wouldn’t happen for many months. But this is the closest the United States has come to kicking out an app used by an estimated 170 million Americans.
WHEN WOULD TIKTOK BE GONE?
The latest version of the legislation gives TikTok 270 days – about nine months – to sell to another company, with provisions for additional 90-day extensions if “significant progress” is being made to sell TikTok. During that time, the app would likely continue to operate as normal in the United States.
The 270 days mean that TikTok would keep working well past the November presidential election. The timeline in the original House bill was only 180 days, which could have shut the app down a month ahead of the election.
Lawsuits could extend the proposed timeline or dump a ban entirely. Or TikTok could sell the app instead but …
COULD TIKTOK FIND A NEW OWNER IN TIME?
The odds may not be great.
China’s government has previously said it would strongly oppose a forced sale of the app.
And a purchase of TikTok would likely cost tens of billions of dollars. Few people or companies have that kind of money – and companies that do such as Meta or Google probably won’t try to buy TikTok because antitrust regulators are unlikely to allow it.
The likeliest outcome, then, maybe an attempted government ban of TikTok and almost certainly, courts will have to decide whether a ban violates Americans’ constitutional rights.
WHY DO THEY WANT TO BAN TIKTOK?
Many U.S. government officials worry that China’s government can force TikTok to hand over data from Americans’ smartphones or manipulate the videos people see on TikTok toward the preferences of the Chinese Communist Party.
Those concerns are largely hypothetical. U.S. officials haven’t made public evidence that TikTok has been systematically manipulated by China’s government.
But those officials say the only surefire way to remove the national security risk is to force ByteDance to sell the U.S. version of TikTok to a non-Chinese owner or kick the app out of the United States entirely.
The officials who worry about TikTok also say it’s a unique risk to America’s national security. The app is used by roughly half of Americans and it functions like a nationwide, TikTok-programmed television channel that could influence American’s views about elections or the Israel-Gaza war.
Legislators have also grilled TikTok’s CEO and other executives over the spread of child sexual abuse material through their apps and the potential harm to children’s mental health from social media use. Those concerns are not specific to TikTok.
HOW CAN I SAVE MY TIKTOK DATA?
For now, your experience should remain the same on the app, but you can start planning for a potential shutdown. See if your favorite creators also post on other apps and follow them there as well.
If you post to TikTok, make sure your videos are backed up by going to your profile → Settings and privacy → Account → Download your data.
WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES TO TIKTOK?
TikTok clones are everywhere.
YouTube has YouTube Shorts and Instagram’s Reels also are a constant feed of short vertical videos tailored to your tastes. Snapchat has Spotlight, in the same vein.
If TikTok is actually removed from app stores in the United States, we’ll likely see more companies trying to come up with alternatives. That’s what happened after Elon Musk bought Twitter.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR CREATORS ON THE APP?
If TikTok goes away, some individual creators and small business owners will face a threat to their livelihoods, they’ve said – more than 7 million U.S. businesses sell products on TikTok, according to the company.
TikTok didn’t immediately respond to questions about creators’ businesses in the wake of a ban, including how long paid ads would continue to run and what would happen to CapCut, the ByteDance-owned video editing app. There is currently no way for creators to port their followers to another app.
HOW CAN I PROTECT MYSELF ON TIKTOK?
As for the concerns being voiced by lawmakers, you should decide for yourself on your personal risk tolerance when it comes to TikTok.
If you’re uneasy about watching or posting on TikTok, the safest step is not to download or use the app at all. But even if you or your child like using TikTok, it’s worth considering changes to keep your information more private from the company and other people on the app.
• Don’t share your contacts with TikTok. The app will repeatedly ask for permission to access the contacts on your phone or link to your Facebook account. That data can reveal more than you expect about you or your friends. Read more here on how to check your current TikTok settings or change them.
• Set up a new and more anonymous TikTok account. Create an email address that you only use for your TikTok account.
• Block TikTok from collecting information on what you do outside of its app. On iPhones and Android devices, say no when the app asks for permission to track you or, even better, adjust the setting so no apps can do so.
• Watch TikTok videos on a web browser instead of in the app. You won’t get a personalized feed of videos or be able to follow specific accounts but you can just watch individual TikTok videos on the web without downloading the app at all.
• For parents, TikTok has a feature to link their accounts with a teen’s. You can control settings including daily time limits for the app and who can comment on your teen’s videos.
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