Social Media: Controversy in the U.S.
Written by Trey Allphin
TikTok has gone through legal actions and many controversies throughout the years but this one could be the end of the massive social media app and its entirety in the United States. TikTok is a social media platform where people can share short clips of videos, originally sixty seconds it was updated to a three-minute limit, then eventually to the ten-minute limit it is today. TikTok was originally released in China under a different name in 2016, a year later through Bytedance the social media launched globally under the name TikTok, it used the same software as the Chinese release but using different servers due to Chinese censorship. The app has gained mass popularity since its release, especially attracting younger people since the pandemic lockdown.
In 2020 the White House spoke about banning TikTok, this was also followed by many companies looking at taking over TikTok on the American side of operations. These talks were due to TikTok's ownership by the Chinese-owned company Bytedance, the concern itself was if the Chinese government could somehow be gaining access to American information. This is something that Tiktok has said isn't even a possibility on many occasions. Later in 2020 Tiktok seemingly had a bidding war over the rights to the Tiktok US servers. This bidding war included many different companies that offered cloud infrastructure. According to TikTok, they wanted to set up servers in the US for two main reasons, one, because of zooms success with their cloud video system at the time, and second, Trump's view of Tiktok at the time was very negative, even saying he would get the app banned on multiple occasions. One computer technology company in the bidding war named Oracle had some close ties with Trump, mainly because of their cofounder, and they also provided the capabilities, technology wise, so TikTok went with Oracle who later on took control of the US TikTok servers.
Between 2020 and 2024 TikTok didn't have many controversies but social media itself was in controversy. Elon Musk buying Twitter and rebranding it into X and Facebook's infamous data scam are examples of recent social media controversies. Although Tiktok was involved and talked about on many occasions, almost none centered around TikTok itself. However in early 2024, President Joe Biden issued an order for TikTok to sell to an American company or the app would be banned in the US in just under a year, mainly under the risk of data leaking to China. This set the infamous January 19, 2025 ban date. In many interviews and talks, TikTok higher-ups stated they wouldn't consider selling and this violated many of their rights, and many TikTok users and First Amendment rights activists also believed this was a violation.
Just a couple of days ago the Supreme Court upheld the TikTok ban under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. Stating that the company must cease operations in the US by January 19, 2025 or sell to a new owner. On the morning of January 19th TikTok shut down their US servers making the app unusable, very shortly after the servers were shut down Donald Trump said that he would issue an executive order delaying the ban of TikTok stating he was giving the company more time to sell and that the United States needed better social media after the Facebook data controversy. The next day Trump was inaugurated as the United States president, issuing his order to delay the ban. Almost immediately after the order, Tiktok would reopen their US servers thanking Donald Trump for his efforts. While TikTok is still in a very difficult spot in the United States it should stick around a little longer due to President Trump's executive order.