Press "Enter" to skip to content

The Ban on TikTok 

On Jan. 18 at 8 p.m. CST, TikTok went dark for all users. A message appeared on the screen with the caption, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now” with an explanation following that a law banning TikTok in the U.S. is enacted. The message expressed gratitude that President Trump has stated he will work with TikTok on the situation and to stay tuned. However, that only lasted 12 hours and when users checked back into the app a new message appeared, welcoming users back to the platform.  

“I would say I’m cautious and attentive. Anytime a government entity steps in to phase out a form of communication, it naturally raises questions about the reasons behind the decision and what this could mean for the future of the technology,” said Samantha Archer, assistant professor in the Communications Studies and Theater Arts Department.  

Archer’s background of study comes from mass communications and interpersonal communications. She also specifically finds interest in social media and how people engage in social media in interpersonal ways, which guides her studies.  

The reasoning behind the ban stems from TikTok being owned by a Chinese company, Bytedance, which has been accused of posing a national security threat. In other words, the ban is to ensure that a Chinese-owned social media app isn’t invading American’s privacy and not giving away their personal data.   

“Through my research, I’ve found that the evidence on this issue varies and should be examined carefully,” said Archer. “Can I say confidently that it is the number one issue that they want to censor? No, but is it a repercussion of them banning? Absolutely,” said Archer. 

The ban has been taken personally by a lot of younger users. TikTok began to gain attention in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing. It was a time when there was no face-to-face connection and the only way people could engage with one another was digitally. TikTok gave users a sense of community when they were isolated in their homes.  

“I got TikTok a little bit before the time of the lockdown and it helped me connect with my peers with the traumatic events we were all going through. We all trauma bonded in a way. It was an outlet for my generation and many to bring light to something so bad in the world,” said Juliana Conlin, a senior at Concordia who uses TikTok.  

As of now TikTok is no longer on the App Store, but users can use the app if they had downloaded it previously to the ban. However, if the App is deleted, there is no redownloading it at this time. An executive order has been placed by President Trump to hold off on the ban for 75 days, thus giving more time for a U.S. buyer to come in and purchase the app.  

This also means the application will not be able to update. Before the ban, TikTok was updating at least twice a week to improve various things and to fix bugs and malfunctions.  

Which begs the question: what will happen if the app is unable to update to fix these bugs or malfunctions? 

Connor Wilcox, an assistant professor in the Communications Department at Concordia, whose research focuses on media in society and media as an ecosystem, predicts that one of two things could happen.  

“One [possibility] everything runs fine. People still use it they just don’t get access to the new [updates], but nothing breaks. The second [option] is that things break and then people leave the platform because of unforeseen, weird things happening that [ByteDance] cannot address,” said Wilcox.  

Wilcox then foresees that something else will come to take TikTok’s place.  

“The media ecosystem [is like] a regular ecosystem, where if the organism that is TikTok starts to weaken, something [with stronger appeal] will potentially take its place,” said Wilcox.  

Wilcox predicts that if the lack of updates starts to cause users problems, then users will migrate to a different platform or a service. But the question still stands of what will happen next with TikTok and where will users go.  

Questions circulate if it will be a buyer such as Elon Musk, content creator, Mr. Beast or ‘Shark Tank’ star Kevin O’Leary. Time will only be able to tell.  

Archer and Wilcox both encourage users to look inward during this time and reflect on their media usage.  

“Having that self-awareness of why we do things will help us understand how they impact us. I think that lending power to us as people and how we use technology is really helpful and helping us not feel so powerless when it comes to situations like this where all of a sudden it’s gone,” said Archer.  

Be First to Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Mission News Theme by Compete Themes.