TikTok — a social media platform used by over 170 million Americans and 7 million small businesses based in the United States — will go dark in January 2025. Barring court challenges or Chinese divestment, a law passed this April will completely ban TikTok in the U.S. or force a sale to a U.S.-based company.
TikTok is an economic powerhouse. Its parent company, ByteDance, generates around $120 billion in gross revenue each year. For context, U.S. based Meta — the parent company of Facebook and Instagram — generated $134 billion in gross revenue in 2023. ByteDance’s revenue continues to steadily grow, rivaling its American counterparts.
Viewpoints on the U.S. government’s motivation for the bill differ, with some citing the economy as a main factor. “At the end of the day, I think [the ban] is financially motivated more than anything,” Educational Technology Specialist Reed Sandbach said. “We’re sort of in this place where we think that TikTok is mainly owned by China, and whether or not that is the case, the main threat there is coming from economic dominance.”
Some believe that other apps would fill TikTok’s place if it were to be banned in January. “I feel like there’d be … another thing that happened that was … kind of the new Tiktok, like Instagram reels or something,” Olivia Stanton ‘27 said.
The potential ban might never take effect depending on the outcome of TikTok’s lawsuit against the U.S. government. TikTok is currently suing to block the law, arguing that a ban would violate its users’ right to free speech.
Shou Chew, TikTok’s CEO, responded to the potential ban in a widely viewed TikTok video addressing his user base. “Make no mistake: this is a ban on TikTok and a ban on your voice,” he said.
Some worry that the Chinese government could use TikTok to spy on American citizens. In a July 26 legal filing, the United States Department of Justice said, “Given TikTok’s broad reach within the United States, the capacity for China to use TikTok’s features to achieve its overarching objective to undermine American interests creates a national-security threat.”
Particularly worrying to experts is Article 28 of the Chinese Cybersecurity Law, which allows the Chinese government to force TikTok to turn over data on any user as requested.
Rob Mishev is a national security professional with experience across the Department of Defense and U.S. Cyber Command. In an interview with The Urban Legend, he said, “The Chinese government has all the intelligence they could possibly want on the U.S. And because [TikTok is] a social media platform, … there’s an algorithm behind how things are being surfaced to people.”
Mishev said, “[So] if they chose to, [TikTok] could … push the scale a little bit and maybe start … prioritizing content to people in America that is in China’s best interest.”
Leaked internal emails proved in at least one instance that TikTok tracks American users. According to a report in Forbes Magazine, “ByteDance confirmed it used TikTok to monitor journalists’ physical location using their IP addresses.”
In addition to his arguments around misuse of user data and algorithmic manipulation, Mishev highlighted the lack of American social media counterparts in China. “I think a key question to ask is, why has China banned Facebook? Banned YouTube?” he said. “U.S. social platforms are not allowed in China. There’s a very strong reason for that, and it’s the exact reason why TikTok is a concern in the United States.”
