Despite legal battles and public debate, the TikTok ban remains in effect in the United States, raising questions about its impact on users on how justified the ban really is.
Tiktok has been a music and video sharing platform for over nine years. The app has been challenged around the globe in countries like India, Afghanistan, Somalia, Albania and more recently the United States for new users.
Some countries do not have TikTok banned for its citizens but it is banned on its federal devices in countries like United Kingdom, European Union, Denmark, Norway, France, Netherlands, Latvia, Austria and the United States in 2022.
Back in April of 2024, former president Joe Biden signed legislation that required ByteDance, TikToks parent company, to sell the social media platform to a U.S. company or shut down by Jan.19. ByteDance filed a lawsuit against the United States over the ban claiming that the law was unconstitutional and should be struck down. The supreme court on Friday, Jan.17 unanimously upheld the federal law banning the app.
The ban seems to stem from worry that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, will attempt to steal its users’ data and privacy. Although the company denies these claims, the app is still seen as a security threat.
Many students have a negative feeling toward the ban, and some are even outraged. Senior Nyla Street shares “I’m disappointed and enraged like what am I supposed to do in my free time now? Watch Instagram reels. I refuse can’t do it.”
Many students, like freshman Ezekiel Shepherd, feel that the security concerns over the app are not quite justified.
“While there are privacy concerns, you could just make laws about that and there’s so many other things stealing our information normally, not just TikTok.” Shepherd said.
For most students it seems that TikTok is not the only app that is stealing information, Sophomore Natalie Hennis,“I know for sure that Instagram takes more of my data than Tiktok ever has. I have never been so positive about something in my life, if I look up something on TikTok I don’t get ads for it but if I look up something on Instagram I get ads for it. I know they’re selling my data.”
Street states that she feels the ban is unconstitutional,“ I don’t think it’s justified because it is in violation of our first right. Anything that gets rid of or limits our freedom of speech is unconstitutional so they shouldn’t ban tiktok because of that. National Security is not really a good reason in my opinion because the government steals our data anyways,” Streets states
The ban will make it impossible to download the app meaning that new users can not go into the app store or play store and existing users can not go in and update the app. Tiktok has updates often to fix bugs so the app, if it is not updated regularly the app could just crash and users will not be able to use the app without it being glitchy.
Tiktok isn’t the only app being affected by the ban, apps like Capcut, Lemmon 8 and Gauth: AI are also affected by the ban. These apps also went dark around the same time that TikTok did but were not accessible as quickly as TikTok was.
Tiktok has a very unique algorithm. Most people say that TikTok is one of a kind because of its algorithm and there won’t be an app similar to it.
“It won’t be the same but they’ll be similar types, definitely not as high quality as tiktok because of its algorithm,” said shepherd.
Before the ban could go into effect, TikTok unexpectedly went dark late on Jan.18. Users received a message when they opened the app, saying that a law in the United States has banned the app and that they were working hard to get the app back thanks to the help of president Donald Trump. 
TikTok was inaccessible for a total of only 14 hours. Users were able to log into TikTok like normal and continue to post and share videos like usual.
During Trump’s first term he attempted to ban the app as well, but since then has changed his views and swore that on his first day in office he would do something to prevent the ban.
Trump has put an executive order on the delay of the law banning TikTok. According to the order, the law will be paused for 75 days. Trump and his administration hope to find a solution that protects the nation’s security while still being able to help a platform used by Americans.
Many educators also feel strongly about this ban, computer science teacher Stephanie Long. “I’ll be honest, because I teach computer science, it makes me nervous when they do something like this how much this is going to affect our digital censorship because I know that there are other countries that can’t see the same things that we see,” Long said, “ for example I have some good friends in Canada and when we send reels back and forth to each other through Facebook Messenger they can’t see it because its blocked, and it worries me that this is going to open the door for more things like this to happen. “
Long does feel nice about her students not trying to sneak on their phones to log into TikTok and things like that, but she still feels strongly about this ban and what else it could mean as far as censorship.
