On Sunday, January 19, a devastating event impacted the USA, with many people temporarily losing their jobs and millions of others losing their minds. TikTok was banned because it posed a national security threat to the US. President Trump signed an executive order to extend the ban for 75 days. The company that owns TikTok, ByteDance, must sell the app to a US holder before the deadline, or else the app will be banned forever.
With the TikTok ban, several people are in contention to buy the app. MrBeast posted a video asking TikTok if he could buy the app. Trump said he is also open to SpaceX co-founder, Elon Musk, or Oracle co-founder, Larry Ellison, buying TikTok. If this happens, it could bring the app back to the app stores. The app went dark during the overnight hours of January 19 and lasted 19 hours. Because the app cannot be downloaded in the USA, people are selling their old and new phones pre-downloaded with TikTok for up to $25k.
After a meeting with TikTok owners, Trump said, “Frankly, we have no choice. We have to save it.” In this quote, Trump said he would help TikTok override this ban with the hopes that TikTok stay in America.
With this TikTok ban, the TikTok shop also closed down, which can lead to job losses because of the amount of merchandise sold on the platform and the income that creators make from video creation. In addition to TikTok, many other apps by the company ByteDance have been banned, such as Lemon8 and Capcut.
When TikTok was banned in the USA, many other countries’ opinions changed. Britain stated, “Regulators worldwide addressed privacy, safety, and security concerns about TikTok.”
Some people try to keep TikTok in the US by protesting and making videos on other platforms, but this ban shows that not every platform is safe to use. Other platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, Red Note, Likee, Snapchat, YouTube, and others, are safe to use. It also shows that people should read the terms and conditions carefully before agreeing to anything.
