On Wednesday, President Joe Biden signed a measure that provides a $95 billion aid package for Ukraine. The bill also includes assistance for Israel and Taiwan. And it could spell the end of TikTok in the United States.
What does TikTok have to do with foreign aid? Not much. Politicians often bundle bills together—even bills that seem unrelated. It’s part of the give-and-take of compromise. Sometimes, a political party can pass the laws it desires by packaging them with measures that make the other party happy.
But in the case of a potential TikTok ban, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers came together. In fact, Donald Trump was the first president to suggest banning TikTok.
The new law doesn’t shut down TikTok outright. Instead, it gives ByteDance (the company behind TikTok) nine months to make a choice. Either ByteDance sells TikTok to a U.S. company, or the app will be banned nationwide.
Politicians have eyed TikTok with suspicion for years. Some states, such as Montana, have already banned the app. Government officials are concerned about TikTok’s ties to China, where ByteDance is based. They believe the Chinese government might use TikTok to harvest American data and spread propaganda.
ByteDance officials promise to sue over the potential ban. They say the forced decision violates the U.S. Constitution. They argue a TikTok prohibition would violate the First Amendment rights of its users. Opponents of the ban also claim that lawmakers failed to prove the dangers of TikTok.
Other critics point out hypocrisy in the Biden administration. In 2022, President Biden banned the app from most government devices. But even now, his presidential campaign uses TikTok to reach younger voters.
What would actually happen if the United States bans TikTok? Nobody would get arrested or fined for using it. It wouldn’t disappear from phones. But it would vanish from app stores. The app would no longer receive necessary updates. It wouldn’t take long for TikTok to become buggy, insecure, and finally unusable.
About two in 10 U.S. adults say they use TikTok every day. People under 30 years old use it most often. Some users consider it their primary source of news. But if China controls the flow of content, how trustworthy is that news source?
Many influencers rely on TikTok for their livelihood. For them, a TikTok ban would mean more than losing a fun app—it could mean losing their jobs.
If ByteDance refuses to sell, TikTok’s future will fall to the courts. The ban could set a new legal precedent for digital media. Legal experts say the consequences would reach far beyond just TikTok.
Lawmakers face a difficult balance between promoting safety and protecting freedom. Is a TikTok ban necessary to protect Americans from malicious foreign influence? Or would it do more harm by taking freedom from businesses and consumers?
My son, do not lose sight of these—keep sound wisdom and discretion. — Proverbs 3:21
