As of 10 January 2025, TikTok is a short video application owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. In the following weeks, U.S. lawmakers and government officials exposed the law passed in April 2024 that compels ByteDance to divest its business and operations in the United States by a nation-wide ban on 19th January 2025. This had raised a lot of debate and court battles and had further created wariness among users and content creators.
Background and National Security Concerns
The government of the U.S. shows concern over the national security through TikTok. The officials argue that the control of ByteDance by a Chinese company may avail the Chinese state to use any access to US user data, or influence content threatening national security. These concerns resulted in the enactment of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act in April 2024, requiring foreign-owned applications determined to pose security risks to divest to a non-foreign entity or to cease doing business in the U.S.
Litigation and Supreme Court Action
Appellate Hearing. TikTok filed an appeal seeking a mandatory emergency injunction to extend the deadline on its divestment after an adverse ruling at the D.C. Circuit Court, where an adverse ruling found that it violated First Amendment protections and that there was no factual basis for national security concerns. The United States Supreme Court expedited the case. It had oral arguments in court on January 10, 2025, and delivered judgment by January 19.
Impact to the User and the Content Creator
TikTok has 170 million users in the United States, all of whom are content creators and businesses that survive on the application. A ban would disrupt this activity, with users looking elsewhere for engagement opportunities, such as Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, or Snapchat Spotlight. As a result, many creators are diversifying their online presence to prepare for an eventual shutdown.
Economic Impacts
TikTok rakes in somewhere between $10 billion and $12 billion a year in advertising revenue from the United States. If this service is banned, such revenues might fall to its competitors: Meta Platforms Inc., which owns Facebook and Instagram, and Alphabet Inc., owner of YouTube. Such an event would bring about much distress to the world of digital advertising.
Politics
There are the political factor elements that give an added level of complexity. With the fact that the president-elect Donald Trump was active on TikTok and had already indicated his desire to “save” the application, he did indeed file an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, asking them to delay the date for divestiture to help pave its way in negotiating a resolution for it. There’s just one other level of uncertainty that is now added because of his policies can bring a different perspective to the outcome.
International Perspective
TikTok is under fire in the United States as part of the global backlash against the app. Over ten countries have banned or restricted access to TikTok, citing security and privacy concerns as reasons, showing the growing skeptical trend over apps owned by other countries.
Public Opinion
Public opinion over the ban of TikTok in the United States declined over time, from 50% in March 2023 to 32% by mid-2024. That means the United States is slowly becoming more open to this service, though security concerns are never going to dissipate.
Conclusion
No one knows exactly how the American future of the application will be formed as the date of January 19, 2025 is approaching. Decisions of the Supreme Court, political intervention, and public debate would prove pivotal for TikTok to operate or get banned in the U.S. Users, content creators, and businesses are, therefore, recommended to be vigilant and work on their backup plans in case things do not work out in the best way possible.
