Journalist Kyleigh Lewis gives her take on the possible ban of the popular app

By Kyleigh Lewis

Will TikTok disappear forever in the U.S.? Well, that’s for the United States government to decide. As of March of this year, the social media platform used by billions all over the world is now the talk of the town by United States Senators. So far lawmakers have renewed efforts to crack down on TikTok over national security concerns related to its Chinese parent company ByteDance. This bill called H.R. 7521, would prohibit U.S. citizens access to the app unless the social platform is spun off from the company ByteDance as soon as possible. The legislators fear that ByteDance could be secretly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. It has also been said that the ByteDance employees have been inappropriately accessing the IP addresses of American users, including tracking down journalists speaking on this topic.

As of April 9, the bill is currently stalled in the US Senate, as senators are telling unless Chinese parent company Bytedance sells its stake in the app.

But what exactly is TikTok? It’s an app where many people create and share short videos of memes, dances, hacks, and most importantly, their lives. While the platform was popular before the pandemic, its user base increased exponentially while countries were shut down and people quarantined. It was the app that made people feel less alone while the severity of COVID lingered.

Although it seems that most of the people in charge of this country are in accord with this decision, many U.S. citizens are NOT here for this news. Many people feel that this conflict or possible ban decision is wrong on the government’s part, especially with many people around the country making content and money from this platform. Lots of people of all ages love and adore this app because it’s user-friendly, gives you the choice of personalized content, and recommendations, and gives a sense of community through social features. It’s an app where you can laugh, shop, relate, cry, get the coins, and question any and everything. The platform has helped many careers in all industries including the music industry, changing the lives of many in small and big ways. If all falls through, the estimated 102.3 million users of the app will no longer be able to do any activities concerning it. Some people don’t like or don’t care about the decision of TikTok any longer being a thing for them. Further actions concerning the downfall of this app here in the U.S. will be determined by the Senate. Alternatives that will possibly replace this app are Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, Snapchat, Triller, etc. Some of these alternatives are TikTok-inspired too. Either way, only time will tell how this situation is going to go down. Between the TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew having to defend his Singaporean ethnicity against Senator Tom Cotton who claims heavily that Chew is Chinese…this may not end well. What do you think?