by Molly Schecter ‘27

For the past few years, the U.S. government in Congress and through the courts has threatened to ban the app, TikTok. In addition to concerns over its potentially harmful effect on teens, the United States has raised national security alarms because the parent company of Tik Tok is located in China. This month, a U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a ruling that the platform will face national ban unless the parent company sells the app to a U.S. company.

Tiktok is owned by Bytedance, which is located in China. According to DemandSage data company, in 2024 a Tiktok user spends an average of 58 minutes and 24 seconds on Tiktok a day, and the U.S. had 120.5 million users. TikTok, like many other social media platforms, gathers information on users, such as browsing history, location, and identity. With this many American users, the U.S. government worries that the Chinese government can possibly access the information gathered by the app, and use it to blackmail users. Another worry is that the Chinese government can use the TikTok algorithm to influence users and spread false information.

Following the court ruling, TikTok has requested that the federal court pauses its ruling, asking that the Supreme Court review the case. The company also hopes that President-Elect Donald Trump will intervene when he takes office, now suggesting that he will “save” TikTok.