The weeks leading up to January 18th, many American users on the popular and beloved app, TikTok, were in disarray over the upcoming ban that would be placed on the app due to concerns over national security, a decision made by the United States Congress. But why is there so much discourse behind these concerns, and what does it have to do with censorship? To answer these questions, we’ll have to go to the action that started discussion about the ban and TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance.
The Ban on January 18th
First, to explain the current place TikTok stands in the United States, the app is still working and available for American users to post, comment, and interact on. Although it isn’t available on app stores for the United States region, the app continued to work if it was on your phone before the ban.
On January 18th, the night before TikTok was set to be ban, the app went dark and popped up with a message from TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, saying “We regret that a U.S. law banning TikTok will take effect on January 19 and force us to make our services temporarily unavailable. We’re working to restore our service in the U.S. as soon as possible, and we appreciate your support. Please stay tuned.” BBC also reported that “The social media platform briefly went dark in the US days before Trump took office, after the Supreme Court denied a bid by its Chinese owner ByteDance to overturn the legislation.” However, not even a full twenty four hours after TikTok shut down, it was back in service due to the fact that President Trump signed an executive order, giving ByteDance’s owners a 75 day extension to comply with what the United States government wants: for TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app to an American company.
TikTok’s Impact
Of course, before Trump’s executive order, the fate of TikTok was up in the air for lot’s of American users who used the app everyday. Not only has TikTok proved to be a staple in the culture of the Gen Z generation and beyond, but the app has also been a place for creators, small businesses, and public figures to share content with followers since 2017. TikTok’s algorithm works differently than other social media platforms like X or Instagram, making it an invaluable tool for individuals who use it. After Trump’s order to bring the app back in service, many users expressed their relief after such panic, but this action goes much further than what’s on the surface.
Why Is the United States Banning TikTok? (Tiktok Inc. v. Garland)
Even though Trump was the one to hold off TikTok’s banning, he was also the one who started the conversations of concern about American data and national security. The place that cites the main reason behind the United States decision to ban TikTok can be found in the official Supreme Court case, Tiktok Inc. v. Garland. As the document state in the opening, “As of January 19, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act will make it unlawful for companies in the United States to provide services to distribute, maintain, or update the social media platform TikTok, unless U. S. operation of the platform is severed from Chinese control.” The case also explains that even though TikTok is operated by an American company stationed in California, TikTok’s parent company is privately owned in China. This raised concerns for government officials in the United States because “ByteDance Ltd. is subject to Chinese laws that require it to “assist or cooperate” with the Chinese Government’s “intelligence work” and to ensure that the Chinese Government has “the power to access and control private data” the company holds.” This means that the Chinese government is entitled to any and all data from the app, including data from every American user.
In August of 2020 when Trump was serving his first term, he stated that “…mobile applications developed and owned by companies in [China] continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.” When Biden took over the presidency in 2021, conversations about coming to an agreement with ByteDance over security concerns continued, but ultimately went nowhere because an agreement could not be reached. In April of 2024, Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA) into law with the intention of targeting TikTok, which threatened civil enforcement and monetary penalties for companies that went against the conditions of the act. After the act was signed, it would go into effect 270 days later—which is the reason why January 19th was cited as the designated date to ban the app.
Despites the concerns from the government’s side, many users, and the owners of TikTok, have called into question the reason and justification behind this ban, citing that it violates the first amendment under the right to freedom of speech. However, after the court came to a ruling on the 17th of January, they stated that their ban against TikTok was constitutional, and did not go against the law.
Growing Concerns Over American Censorship
Keeping the first amendment in mind, the TikTok ban has now brought up conversations around censorship and how the American public, but also younger generations, are picking up on things their government, politicians, and powerful CEOs are doing. Ever since the executive order was put up on the 19th, there have been reports of the app censoring certain searches from users. On the 20th, X user @KarlMaxxed said this: “TikTok is now region locking Americans from looking up things like “fascism” and “Donald Trump rigged election”… on the left are results from a device in America, and on the right are results from one in the UK.”
Newsweek, the source of this post, wasn’t able to verify the accuracy of this claim, but there have been multiple accounts of censorship, saying that TikTok is blocking anti-Trump language, which goes against free speech. Not only has there been a change in the search system, but algorithms, comments, and recommended feed are being modified. These changes didn’t come out of the blue though. TikTok’s CEO has been advancing his connections with President Trump, thanking him for bringing the app back to the US, and even attending his inauguration alongside other big figures like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerburg, two billionaires that rank in the top five of the richest people in the world. Mark Zuckerburg in particular, owner of Meta and CEO of Facebook, has “…made moves that align with the president’s views, like Mark Zuckerberg abolishing internal DEI efforts at Meta, eliminating his platforms’ fact-checking system, and welcoming political speech back online” according to Semafor.
Why Is Data Stealing So Important Now?
Facebook, an American company run and managed by Mark Zuckerberg, has been selling and stealing data from their users for years, so why does the security of the American people matter now? Facebook has not been shy of being caught in an array of data issues, including the Cambridge Analytica data scandal that happened throughout the late 2010’s, where the data of millions of Facebook users was stolen and used by an British firm to manipulate political advertising, explained by the New York Times: “The New York Times… obtained a cache of documents from inside Cambridge Analytica, the data firm principally owned by the right-wing donor Robert Mercer. The documents proved that the firm, where the former Trump aide Stephen K. Bannon was a board member, used data improperly obtained from Facebook to build voter profiles.” Other than this, big companies like Google and Facebook sell data in order to grow their platforms, which is why their owners are some of the richest people on earth.
Admittedly, in March of 2023 when the legal action against TikTok first began, James Lewis, an information security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies said “It’s not that we know TikTok has done something, it’s that distrust of China and awareness of Chinese espionage has increased…” Even after Trump’s initial concerns in 2020, the government didn’t have clear evidence outlined of TikTok’s breach against national security at the time.
If the government isn’t concerned about banning Facebook for selling and misusing American data for years, then why are they so focused on banning TikTok when there are important things to focus on in our world right now?
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyng762q4eo
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24-656_ca7d.pdf
https://www.wsaz.com/2025/01/19/tiktok-warns-users-hours-before-ban-takes-effect/
https://www.thefire.org/cases/tiktok-inc-v-garland-no-24-656-us-supreme-court
https://www.newsweek.com/tiktok-blocking-anti-trump-content-what-we-know-2018190
https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#76e713a53d78
https://www.semafor.com/article/01/22/2025/tiktok-users-complain-of-censorship-altered-algorithms
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-scandal-fallout.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/24/tech/tiktok-ban-national-security-hearing/index.html
