Recently in March 2024, a congressional committee brought the CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, for testimony in a hearing surrounding data-sharing concerns.
The attempts to ban TikTok started in 2020 when President Donald Trump attempted to ban TikTok with an executive order citing national security concerns. In 2020, Trump attempted to ban TikTok because of how unsecure it seemed to be and how people thought that their personal data was getting leaked.
In 2020, TikTok created an alliance with a company called Oracle. Oracle is the only technology provider with a cloud infrastructure platform, Oracle sells software products. Two years later in 2022, a plan was formed by Oracle. The plan was called Project Texas. It was aimed at ensuring Americans that TikTok is safe and that their data is secure by mandating that all TikTok code is checked by Oracle to ensure that its functionality matches with what TikTok says it does. All birthdays, users’ phone numbers and videos saved in drafts are stored on Oracle’s servers. This way, users won’t have to worry about their data being stolen.
In 2023, according to axios.com, Joe Biden’s administration banned TikTok from federal agencies. This means that any federal device that had TikTok installed must have been removed immediately. A couple of months later in March, the CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, was brought before Congress for a testimony. During this testimony, Chew repeatedly refuted having any connections with China and defended TikTok’s security. Even though Chew used everything he could to defend the fact he had zero connections with China, some members of the courthouse did not believe Chew. They believed that he was lying and continuously asked him if he was Chinese or had any connections with the Chinese government.
After this testimony, in May 2023, Montana became the first U.S. state to sign legislation to ban TikTok. However, in November 2023, the ban was blocked before taking effect, and a member of the U.S. government stopped the ban. The ban attempts did not stop in 2023. On March 13, 2024, the House passed a bill that could lead to either U.S. ban on TikTok, or force TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell TikTok. The bill was passed in the House in a 352-65-1 vote. If the bill passes the Senate, President Joe Biden has agreed to sign the bill.
Students all around campus have heard about the ban in the same way and everyone is debating the same thing. Will TikTok be banned? Some say it is likely since the bill has already been passed with many votes.
“It’s a hot topic of debate,” FHS senior Ayush Pandey said.
While some people believe TikTok will get banned, Barak Shahar, a senior at FHS disagrees. After many years of attempts to get TikTok banned, students have stopped believing that TikTok will get banned.
“I think they’ll either sell it or it just won’t happen,” Shahar said. If the bill is to be signed, Bytedance will have a couple of months to attempt to sell the app to an American Company.
In the end, we can see that even years after Donald Trump failed to ban TikTok, the attempts still take place by Joe Biden. Soon, we will see whether or not the students were right, and if TikTok will be banned.
