US threatens to ban TikTok? Good luck: NPR

TikTok has become ingrained in culture.

Leon Neal/Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Leon Neal/Getty Images

TikTok has become ingrained in culture.

Leon Neal/Getty Images

TikTok is on trial as US authorities consider a ban. There’s just one problem: it’s not just an app for silly videos anymore, it’s now part of our culture.

Who are they? The TikTok generation. You could think of them as tweens shaking their hips to a Megan Thee Stallion song. In fact, more than one in three Americans use the app.

• Just this week, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said the app had reached 150 million active users in the United States. That’s up from the 100 million the app announced in 2020.

• It has changed the online experience far beyond its own platform, along with almost every other major social media platform rotate to video.

The Biden administration is demanding that TikTok be sold to Beijing-based ByteDance.

Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

The Biden administration is demanding that TikTok be sold to Beijing-based ByteDance.

Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

What is the problem ?

• Any potential ban on the app wouldn’t just be a regulatory or legal battle. Consideration should be given to how American culture has been significantly altered and intertwined with the foreign-owned app.
• Like it or not, TikTok is setting the discourse on beauty standards, cultural appropriation, finances, privacy and parenthood, and impacting consumer habits from books to music, boosting small businesses and keeping users informed about the drama of avian disease.
• Pew’s research found that a small but growing number of American adults also get their news on TikTok, even as news consumption on other social media platforms stagnates or declines.
• It is this very scope that seems to worry the Biden administration. He cited national security concerns that TikTok is owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance, which is subject to Chinese laws that would require it to hand over information to the government about its customers. White House officials told TikTok it must divest itself of ByteDance or face the possibility of a ban.

Want more? Listen to the consider this episode on #dementia TikTok – a dynamic and supportive community.

what people say

Author and speaker Trevor Boffone, in the 2022 book TikTok cultures in the United States:

TikTok has fully penetrated American culture. Take for example a trip to grocery chain Trader Joe’s, which features an “as seen on TikTok” section promoting foods made popular by TikTok. Or, for example, Barnes & Noble stores, with tables dedicated to #BookTok. And, of course, TikTok has perhaps had the most obvious influence on the music industry; trending songs on TikTok achieve commercial success and land at the top of the charts.

Katerina Eva Matsa, associate director of research at Pew, in a 2022 report:

In just two years, the share of U.S. adults who say they regularly receive news from TikTok has roughly tripled, from 3% in 2020 to 10% in 2022. The video-sharing platform saw high revenue in the year last and has become particularly popular. among teenagers – two-thirds of whom say they use it in one way or another – as well as among young adults.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in his prepared remarks before the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce:

Let me say this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country. However…you don’t just have to take my word for it. Rather, our approach has been to work transparently and cooperatively with the US government and Oracle to craft robust solutions to address concerns about TikTok’s legacy.

So what now?

• NPR’s Bobby Allyn reports that at Thursday’s hearing, Zi Chew is expected to say that a forced divestiture would not address fundamental concerns about streams or data access. A long legal battle could ensue, whatever the outcome.

• The United States isn’t the only place to have doubts about Tiking and Tokking: the app is banned in India, with other restrictions in place or being considered in the European Union, Canada, Taiwan, New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands and more.

Learn more: