Earlier this month, the Trump administration indicated that it was looking at banning the mega-popular social media app TikTok, citing concerns over user data being shared with the Chinese government. TikTok publicly denied that it is sharing user data with China, but nevertheless, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he is potentially banning TikTok from the US as early as August 1.
According to reports online, President Trump stated that he has the "authority" to ban TikTok if he so desires, through the use of an executive order. Allegedly, Trump no longer wants to try to force TikTok developer ByteDance to sell its share of the app to a US-owned business. When those reports surfaced, rumors pointed to Microsoft being interested in buying TikTok, though it seems nothing is coming from that.
So far, the social media reaction to the potential TikTok ban has been mixed. Some seem appalled by the idea, as TikTok has quickly become one of the world's most popular social media apps and is used by millions of people daily. Others are in favor of it, with many TikTok detractors seeming to share the concern that the app may be used by China to collect data on American citizens.
While the Trump administration and other lawmakers have cited security concerns as the reason why they want to ban TikTok from the US, it is worth pointing out that there was an incident involving TikTok users and Donald Trump's rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on June 20. TikTok users reportedly requested tickets to the Trump rally with the intention of not showing up in an effort to embarrass the president. The Trump campaign anticipated the need for an outdoor overflow stage due to these false ticket claims, but ultimately those plans were scrapped when only 6,200 people showed up to the 19,000 seat arena.
In the meantime, some of the top TikTok users have already started moving to competing social media apps, like Triller, in anticipation of TikTok being banned by the Trump administration. Others have simply encouraged their followers to start following them elsewhere on the Internet, whether it be through Instagram or Twitter.
It will definitely be interesting to see how other top TikTok stars like Charli D'Amelio, Addison Rae, Zach King, and Loren Gray react to the situation, especially if the US government goes through with banning the app on August 1 as threatened.
Source: NPR