Do you think tiktok should be banned? Sorry, there was an error loading this poll.
Tiktok, an app that launched in 2016, has been a major part of a lot of people’s lives. Since its release, it’s been used for content creation, advertising and entertainment. It’s a popular app in the US and in many other countries as well. However, many countries have banned this Chinese app, such as: Belgium, Austria, India, France and many more because of the lack of privacy in your data. The company that owns this platform, ByteDance, has been stealing people’s information illegally, tracking them, or even selling it to other people to make profit.
This is relevant today, because the US is trying to ban it after multiple attempts. Montana as a state has already banned it, making it the first state in the US to ban Tiktok. The Tiktok ban has been relevant in our country from around 2020 to today, and it seems like the House has passed a bill to officially ban the app, with a condition. On March 13, 2024 the House approved the bill of banning Tiktok, and the main company, ByteDance has 165 days to either sell the app to the U.S. government where ex-US treasury secretary Mnuchin is trying to buy the app so it’s under the government’s control versus China’s control, or after that time period they’ll remove it from the Apple app store and Google play store completely. There has been a lot of controversy about this from day one, for people complaining about exercising their rights with the first amendment. People have started protests for this, and so has the app, with a poll to have Tiktok not get banned.
The biggest problem here, in both cases of the US buying this app, or if it does get banned is Tiktok’s sales will drop because their largest audience currently is in the US with 122 million users. This would also boost other platforms similar to Tiktok, such as Instagram and Facebook with its Reels, and Youtube with Shorts. Lots of people don’t care about it, as they either don’t use Tiktok, or could easily switch over to a similar platform like Instagram, but others do, as it could be a part of their income by content creation, etc. and some people just don’t like the idea of it getting banned because they’re so used to it. Tiktok is stealing your data, is it still worth using and supporting though? Let’s ask some students from our school in an anonymous report.
