Tik tok, tik tok.
Time is running out for one of the most popular apps in the United States. For the past few years, the TikTok app has been muddled in controversy. Washington lawmakers have been threatening to ban TikTok over national security concerns.
“For years, lawmakers and administration officials have expressed concerns that Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over U.S. user data, or influence Americans by suppressing or promoting certain content on TikTok,” an Associated Press article stated.
ByteDance, a China-based company, launched TikTok in 2016. In 2018, ByteDance bought Musical.ly for a whopping 1 billion dollars, merging TikTok and Musical.ly into the app people know and love.
But as TikTok thrived and became one of the most popular apps in the world, the people of the United States watched as the House of Representatives and the Senate passed the TikTok ban bill.
After Congress passed the bill, the president signed it into law, giving the China-based parent company ‘ByteDance’ nine months to sell the app to an American company or ban it completely from the United States.
That was April 23, 2024. Nine months later, ByteDance has refused to sell TikTok and continues to fight the battle in courtrooms.
In just a few days, on Jan. 19, TikTok will be removed from app stores and will no longer be able to receive updates. Slowly but surely TikTok would fade away.
What is TikTok? If you have been living under a rock, TikTok is a very popular social media app with well over 170 million Americans using the app every single day. It allows users to create, share, and discover short-form videos.
The platform is very popular because of its user-friendly creation tools. Anyone can create content and upload it for millions of users to see. Its vast library of sounds, music, and effects, and its most precious possession, its highly personalized algorithm, allowed it to stand out from other social platforms.
TikTok is the home of some of the most viral trends and challenges. These trends and challenges spread quickly, generate millions of views and likes, and encourage more people to join the platform.
As the United States government prepares to ban the app, people argue that TikTok is beneficial to the United States economy.
TikTok has an online shop, similar to Amazon and other big online stores. The TikTok shop was launched in September 2023, and since then it has grown to a shop known for its cheap prices and amazing quality items.
According to an Oxford Economics report, TikTok contributed $24.2 to GDP in the United States in 2023 while supporting 224,000 jobs.
Banning the app will affect not just those 170 million Americans but thousands of small businesses that will possibly see an immediate disruption in the number of customers. These small businesses rely on the TikTok shop for marketing, brand visibility, and sales. Without TikTok, small businesses are at risk of completely falling apart and losing jobs for thousands of Americans.
For American users and small businesses, the TikTok ban will force them to continue their journey on another platform but what about content creators? For many, TikTok has been a vehicle for their success, and entrepreneurship, but with the ban looming, everything they know is going to change.
What do some of our Granite Hills content creators think about the ban?
Dominic Palomar is a Granite Hills makeup content creator. His page is full of ‘Get Ready With Me’ (GRWM), shopping hauls, and reviews of makeup products. You can find him on TikTok @grw.dominicc. At first, Palomar believed that TikTok would not get banned but now that the deadline is close, Palomar is shocked.
“So I was like, whoa. I’m like, I didn’t get to have my big moment yet,” Palomar said.
When TikTok does get banned, he will move to YouTube, where he will post longer videos and Instagram.
With TikTok getting banned, Palomar is thankful for the journey TikTok has taken him on.
Emma Figueroa is also a Granite Hills makeup content creator. Figueroa’s page is very similar to that of Palomar. She was disappointed and somewhat scared.
“They had set a specific date, so, like, I got scared and stuff,” Figueroa said.
She will start posting on Instagram and consider YouTube as well. She described YouTube to be a little more difficult because people’s attention spans have diminished dramatically.
Figueroa is extremely grateful for the community that she has met on TikTok. She enjoys meeting those who enjoy the same things as her.
Jan. 19 is almost here and some lawmakers are trying to keep the ban from happening. They are trying to extend the deadline so that an American company can buy the app.
Everybody is going to wait eagerly to see what the future of TikTok in the United States really is.
But for now, the clock is ticking. Tik tok, tik tok.
