In the realm of digital discourse and social media, TikTok has emerged as a cultural phenomenon, captivating users with its short-form videos and viral trends. However, recent rumblings of a potential ban on TikTok in the United States for national security reasons have cast a shadow over the app’s future.
But how probable is an actual outright ban on TikTok in the US? The answer may lie in the 180-degree turn made by current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. When then-president Trump first proposed a ban in 2020 through an executive order, it was met with allegations of unfair play by TikTok, given that the social media giant was singled out for collecting the same type of data that US tech companies like Meta and Apple gathered.
The Trump administration was allegedly concerned that the data collected by TikTok would eventually be shared with the Chinese government via its parent company ByteDance, but there is limited evidence of this. It was also interesting to note that Trump’s executive order came the day after Meta unveiled a product called Reels, a video-sharing app that TikTok claimed to be a “copycat” service.00:11
It appeared as if the entire US ecosystem was threatened by and working together to reject a digital pathogen. That said, the TikTok ban never came to fruition. The social media platform has only grown since then, becoming an integral part of American popular culture and influencing trends in music, fashion and entertainment.
But recently, it has had a huge political influence, which appears to have a lot to do with the resurgence of calls to ban TikTok. Pew Research Centre data shows that about a third of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 regularly get their news from TikTok, making the app an increasingly dominant source and online search engine for the youth.
During this US election year, more than 16 million voters could join the electorate for the first time. Studies reveal that the youngest voting cohort, around 54 million individuals aged 18 to 29, are casting their ballots for the first or second time. They are arguably more liberal, presumably a good thing for the current Democratic administration.
This point is further validated by Biden’s campaign creating a TikTok account to woo more young voters back in February. But earlier this month, the US House of Representatives passed a bill with overwhelming support from Democrats as well as Republicans that would require ByteDance to sell TikTok within six months or face a total ban.
This article originally appeared in the opinion section of the South China Morning Post.a
