The US government passed a law stating that TikTok will be banned in the US on January 19, 2025. TikTok is getting banned because politicians are afraid that the users’ data would be going to the Chinese government.
The US government fears that “TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, may put sensitive user data, like location information, into the hands of the Chinese government,” according to the New York Times. This is because there are laws that allow the Chinese government to secretly get information from Chinese companies and citizens. “With the popularisation of information technology, state secrets have become increasingly digital and networked and the risks of leaks and thefts have become more diverse and hidden,” state news agency Xinhua quoted officials of the justice ministry and agency for protection of state secrets as saying, as the US News said. The government doesn’t want China to leak misinformation or take any information from the US, and other parts of the world, by using TikTok.
In April of 2024, Joe Biden – the 46th President of the US – signed a bill stating that TikTok will be banned on January 19, 2025[,] unless the company that owns the app, ByteDance, agrees to sell to a non-Chinese company. Both political parties in the US agreed about the ban of TikTok.
How the ban will work is that app stores, like those operated by Apple or Google, will not be able to distribute or update TikTok. If any of the app stores do, the government can give them civil penalties. Since there is a push for the sale of TikTok, some investors and billionaires like Steven Mnuchi and Frank McCourt, showed interest in the sale of TikTok.
TikTok, trying to stop the ban from happening, took the case to court and argued that banning the app would impact the freedom of speech for people in the US who use the app. But, as the New York Times stated, judges said that “The government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.”
Even though TikTok lost its first legal challenge by arguing to the court, they will take the case to the Supreme court to attempt to stop the ban from happening. Michael Hughes, a spokesman for TikTok, said that “The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue,” according to the New York Times. TikTok also stated that selling the app would be impossible, since China would block the sale from happening.
There is a chance that Donald Trump, the 47th President of the US, will try to save the app, as ‘A spokeswoman for his [Donald Trump’s] team told The New York Times in November that “he will deliver” on a plan to rescue the app, but provided few details about how he would do so’ the BBC said.
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