James Fox, Campus Carrier deputy news editor

The uncertain fate of the social media app TikTok recently came to a head as the proposed ban of the app was meant to go into effect Sunday. This ban follows concerns of the Chinese-owned app being used to collect data by the People’s Republic of China. The bill was passed by Congress last year.

“[Congress’s] concern was limited to the risks to national security, having this social media platform owned by the Chinese,” Assistant Professor of Political Science Eric Sands said. “To have so many Americans’ personal data that is openly accessible and openly available to foreign powers, Congress said, is a bad idea.”           

 TikTok did briefly shut down on Sunday, but quickly came back online following a promise by Donald Trump to sign an executive order delaying the ban on his first day in office. On Inauguration Day, President Trump followed through with his promise, delaying the ban for 75 days to give the company’s owner, ByteDance, time to sell the app and remain online. 

However, Sands said the delay on the ban was unusual.

“ That’s not really how the president’s powers work,” Sands said. “As the president, [Trump’s] duty is to execute the law, not to decide to get around to it in 75 days. That’s not how the constitutional process works. Because it’s over a social media site, I don’t think a lot of people are going to get up in arms about it, but it does set a potentially disturbing precedent.”

Some are even concluding that the president’s delay of the TikTok ban is merely political theater meant to garner support from younger Americans, as President Trump was the one who initially proposed the ban in 2020.

“The only reason he doesn’t want [TikTok] banned is because he said it helped him win the election,” sophomore Sarah Hanaford said. “I think if the only reason you want to keep something is because you believe it got you into a position of power, that is an unethical reason to try and keep it around.”

Despite President Trump’s apparent efforts to keep TikTok up for Americans, the fate of the app is still very much up in the air, and the reactions to TikTok’s temporary ban on Sunday revealed a lot about what people may be planning to do if it is permanently banned in the United States.

“TikTok, and social media in general, is how a lot of younger people express their opinions as opposed to news articles and books,” Hanaford said. “The ban showed how dependent everyone was on [TikTok] just with all the outrage and people freaking out.”

Leading up to the supposed ban of TikTok on Sunday, many people flocked to an alternative short-form content app called RedNote, a reference to a popular book by Mao Zedong, former chairman of the Chinese Communist Party.

Another common reaction among TikTok users and creators is that banning TikTok infringes upon or at least threatens avenues of free speech. However, Congress’s decision to ban TikTok was not based on the app’s content, but rather its Chinese roots. 

“What was most important was that Congress didn’t really have anything to say about the content of TikTok,” Sands said. “There weren’t any arguments being made about what was being shown and its potential harmful effects on kids or anybody else for that matter.” 

The proposed ban of Tiktok is a very complex subject with no clear sides. Regardless of the state of TikTok after Trump’s 75 day extension, social media will continue to be a powerful platform for Americans – especially younger Americans – to have their voices heard.