With concerns of national security, President Joe Biden passed the bill potentially banning TikTok, an application frequently used and enjoyed mainly by young citizens, leading to distraughtness among United States (U.S.) citizens, April 23.
“I think Tiktok has a lot of influence on high school students,” sophomore Sophie Levy-Wright said. “Teenagers get bored often and they just want to go on TikTokand watch it.”
With large numbers of the U.S. population using TikTok, the government has raised concerns with the app. The U.S government has given the Chinese owned company, ByteDance, one year to sell the app to an approved buyer, before it will become banned.
“People say that the U.S. government is banning it because of China,” sophomore Ben Le said. “The U.S. senators know the company has access to all this information, so why did Tiktok ever exist in the first place? Banning it just punishes everyone. Every other social media platform already exposes the same information.”
The U.S. government is worried that the Chinese government could access sensitive user information through the app. TikTok is the only globally-used social media that is owned by China, sparking the concerns of authorities.The government is also concerned about false information that influences its users.
“I think people will be upset by the ban,” sophomore Monte Ter-aleksanyan said. “However, eventually they’ll use Instagram Reels or Youtube.”
A lot of people are concerned with the ban, as it would end all downloads of the app along with all of the content. Some people think that the ban will be beneficial, while others are upset by it. As of now, it’s unknown whether TikTok will be banned.
“Tiktok influences everyday life and also people’s choices,” Le said. “People choose to let TikTok influence their life, so I don’t know why Tiktok’s being banned because everyone has a choice to let it do that or let it not do that.”