By Brittany McAlister
Trinity Times Correspondent

The U.S. government has made its first move to possibly ban the popular social media platform TikTok and the new law has angered several Trinity Washington University students like Belky LemusAlvarado.

“I am opposed to the TikTok ban because I think it is infringing on the rights of creators’ freedom of expression and limiting their abilities to engage with their online communities,” LemusAlvarado told Trinity Times. “TikTok is not only a social media platform, but it is also a source of income for many creators and small businesses. They use it to promote their brands and a ban would impact their livelihoods.”

According to the recent legislation signed by President Biden on April 24, 2024, TikTok has a nine-month window to secure a non-Chinese buyer, with the potential for a year-long extension granted by the president. Failure to do so would result in U.S. app stores and web hosting services being required to cease operations with TikTok, effectively banning the platform.

TikTok filed a lawsuit against the federal government May 7 over the new law that would compel its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the widely used social media platform or risk a ban in the United States. 

This move ignites a conflict over national security and free speech, poised to escalate to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The situation becomes especially delicate in an election year, as President Joe Biden and lawmakers could encounter backlash from the vast user base of the popular app.

With 170 million monthly users in the U.S., TikTok serves as a platform for a wide range of activities, from sharing viral dances to political discourse.

It has become deeply integrated into people’s lives, especially for content creators who rely on the platform for their livelihood.

Along with other college age students and young people who make up the Gen Z population, LemusAlvarado said TikTok brings her happiness and excitement, and its ban would create a sense of isolation.

“I would lose the sense of community I have built with the creators I follow,” she said. “It would be pretty boring without TikTok, but I thought the same thing would happen when Vine was deleted, and I moved on to YouTube.”

Vine was an American short-form video hosting service launched in 2013 that allowed users to share looping video clips up to 10 seconds long. Owned by Twitter, the service was shut down in 2017 as many different competing platforms such as Instagram began to their own short-form video approach.

As tensions between the U.S. and China have escalated, congressional lawmakers and top law enforcement officials have cautioned that TikTok is under the control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and poses a national security threat to the United States.

U.S. officials are concerned that the Chinese government is leveraging TikTok to access data from American users, potentially spying on them, and spreading disinformation and conspiracy theories.

Professors at Trinity have frequently cautioned their students to be mindful of the source of information they are receiving on social media platforms, because international trolls often create fake accounts to influence swaths of the U.S. population with false information or propaganda.

Trinity students like LemusAlvarado, a freshman Global Affairs major, believe the information they are getting on TikTok is more trustworthy than what is reported by news organizations.

“I feel like news gets around faster on TikTok, and it is also easier to understand, especially when it’s coming from people who are being directly impacted by what is happening,” she said. “For example, the genocide that is happening in Gaza. I can say that I learned more from what is happening in Gaza through TikTok without the filtering of news channels.”

The International Court of Justice ruled earlier this year that the Israeli war in Gaza cannot be classified as a genocide, because there is no evidence there is intent to kill the entire population in whole or in part based on national, ethnical, racial, or religious identity.

In recent years, social media platforms have become an integral part of society, revolutionizing the way people communicate, share information, and express themselves.

Among the multitude of platforms that have emerged, TikTok – with its short-form videos and vast user base – has gained immense popularity worldwide.

However, this popularity has not come without controversy, as TikTok has faced scrutiny and even bans in some countries.

Kaleb Shay, a content creator and drill rapper in the metropolitan Washington area, told Trinity Times he believes efforts to ban TikTok is more about privacy rather than content.

“I personally think it is about privacy, the United States thinks China is spying on them,” Shay said. “To be fair, the U.S. government spies on its own citizens, so I don’t think they have much of a dog in this fight.”

He believes it’s likely the new law will eventually be found unconstitutional, violating the First Amendment by infringing free speech.

However, Trinity Global Affairs Professor Joshua Wright believes it’s also possible the government will effectively argue the validity of the law in the courts, eventually leading to the TikTok ban.

“There’s been an ongoing debate about public safety and the influence of social media on young people,” Wright said. “This fear of China stealing information from the use of TikTok, it’s a contentious debate. We keep hearing that this social media platform is dangerous. Not just for the youth, but dangerous in terms of our privacy, information, and what’s getting out there.” 

The Journal of Cybersecurity reported that TikTok can be used for cyber-attacks which can pose a risk tonational security.

With millions of users worldwide, TikTok could be a target for hackers looking to exploit vulnerabilities in the app’s code or access user data for malicious purposes, the Journal of Cybersecurity reported, adding that it could have serious implications for national security, as cyber-attacks could disrupt critical infrastructure or steal sensitive information.

In its lawsuit, ByteDance contents that selling its U.S. operations was not “commercially, technologically, or legally feasible.”

A crucial aspect of this argument rests on the global nature of TikTok and its competitors, where content transcends national borders, including international videos as a key part of its appeal.

The lawsuit points out that TikTok’s success heavily relies on its recommendation algorithm, which provides users with personalized content. The suit highlights that the Chinese government has stated it would not sell this algorithm.

Trinity senior J’Kaylah Beasley told Trinity Times she trusts China with her information more than the U.S. government.

Beasley, a biology major who frequently uses TikTok to gain information about LGBTQIA issues and sickle cell disease, believes the U.S. government is trying to ban TikTok because it’s envious of the revenue being created by ByteDance.

“They’re not even trying to really ban TikTok,” she said. “They just want the creator to sell it to them, so they can profit off it. If they wanted to ban it, they wouldn’t have given the ultimatum of selling it.”

Shay and several Trinity students also don’t believe the national security risk of TikTok is greater than other U.S. owned tech companies.

“Everything is a risk to national security in this day and age,” Beasley said. “So, if this threat is creating a fun educational and business environment for people, I don’t understand how it’s a risk to security if they have our information just like Amazon.”