Why TikTok should remain banned
By: David Moon
In the late hours of January 18th, TikTok eerily shut down before flickering back to life at noon the next day. Since 2020, TikTok has been under scrutiny by lawmakers due to the influence of its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, on its business operations and decisions. The app finally shut down with the enforcement of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, originally passed in March 2024. The United States government later suspended the ban. However, in its current form, TikTok should remain banned in the U.S. due to concerns about national security and public health.
From a national security standpoint, TikTok should be banned due to its role as a data feed for the Chinese government. Since ByteDance—the parent company of TikTok—is Chinese, it has an influential Communist Party committee, as required by Chinese law for most companies. The existence of this committee means that TikTok and other subsidiaries of ByteDance are subject not only to private decisions but also to the Chinese Communist Party’s interests. With TikTok’s vast number of American users and their information, the CCP can exploit Americans’ personal data for purposes of espionage or propaganda. Furthermore, while it may seem outlandish for the Chinese Government to monitor the types of videos American teens watch, the CCP could also take information like location, purchase information, and other personal data. As China’s 2019 National Intelligence Law compels any Chinese person or group to aid in “national intelligence work,” TikTok is subject to such regulations as well. Naturally, as ByteDance is a Chinese group, the CCP could use the NIL to demand access to TikTok’s data, which poses a major threat to American data security.
Logo of ByteDance, parent company of TikTok
https://seeklogo.com/vector-logo/471468/bytedance
From a public health perspective, TikTok’s continued ban could be beneficial. With as many as 170 million Americans on TikTok, many could use a shutdown of the app to “detox.” A staggering 25% of TikTok’s 16 and 17-year-olds use the app from midnight to five in the morning. Overuse of social media causes issues including cyberbullying and worse sleep schedules. Therefore, many could use the ban as a reprieve from the negative effects of social media and improve their day-to-day health—both mentally and physically.
While TikTok has been beneficial to small businesses and content creators, the abundance of alternatives like YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels means that the negative effects of shutting down TikTok in the United States may be reduced to an extent. Users will have the same right to speech and can join similar apps.
Ultimately, TikTok’s major risks to data security and user health and privacy outweigh any minor concerns about banning the app. Therefore, if the social media platform continues to operate in its current state with Chinese ownership, the U.S.’s ban on TikTok should be upheld.
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