TikTok ban timeline: Is that this the tip of the revolutionary platform?

TikTok has been probably the most standard apps on this planet for practically half a decade now. It has basically reshaped the best way tens of millions of individuals eat content material on the internet, however all of that spotlight has (rightfully) additionally warranted concern from officers. In some international locations, reminiscent of India, TikTok has already been banned for years.

Now, issues have lastly come to a head, with the USA passing a regulation to pressure TikTok to promote or shut down within the US in 2025. In case you haven’t been following the entire story, we’ve damaged down every part it’s essential to know concerning the TikTok ban, the explanations behind it, and the total timeline to date.

The principle motive the US needs to ban TikTok is its ties with China. TikTok is the worldwide model of the Chinese language platform Douyin, and the 2 share the identical guardian firm, ByteDance.

Legislators within the US object to American information being within the arms of a Chinese language firm. With a platform as standard as TikTok, the quantity of information we’re speaking about is astronomical. Since lots of its customers are underage, privateness issues are much more controversial.

Regardless of the corporate’s efforts to be clear, legislators are additionally involved that TikTok will tweak its algorithms or give information over to the Chinese language authorities if requested. Extra excessive parts of the US authorities take the allegations even additional, claiming that the corporate is already beneath the direct management of the Chinese language Communist Occasion.

After all, there are issues aside from nationwide safety. Many assume the app is spreading misinformation or just too addictive. For its half, TikTok does have heavy content material moderation, identical to different social media platforms, and takes issues even additional by permitting US-based staff in Oracle to vet its algorithm and retailer US buyer information. To this point, that doesn’t appear to be sufficient for legislators within the US.

One other doable rationalization is that TikTok is merely caught up in an ongoing commerce conflict between the US and China. We’ve already seen {hardware} firms like HUAWEI banned from the US, and enormous US-based social media apps like Fb and X (previously Twitter) are banned in China. This could be yet one more escalation, which might make sure to have repercussions within the close to future.

Whereas safety and privateness are severe issues, the elephant within the room is that each different social media platform is already gathering and promoting your information. As a basic rule, if information is out there to advertisers, it’s out there for wholesale buy, as effectively.

Even past massive gamers like Fb and Google, smaller firms that you simply’ve by no means even heard of are scooping up information out of your machine and promoting it to the very best bidder. Generally, that features governments world wide.

This information is anonymized, nevertheless it’s trivial to determine particular person customers primarily based on their utilization habits. Within the absence of a complete privateness regulation within the US, nothing will cease this. After all, this wouldn’t rating as many political factors as banning TikTok, which is why many have referred to as the scenario “safety theater.”

As for nationwide safety issues, abuse of algorithms and propaganda already fill American social media platforms like Fb and X (previously Twitter). In actual fact, Russian propaganda has thrived on Elon Musk’s X, which has already gotten the platform in sizzling water with the European Union. In different phrases, a fireplace sale of TikTok to a non-Chinese language billionaire or investor group wouldn’t actually clear up any issues.

Whereas forcing the sale of TikTok would assuage any issues about China’s affect over People, it could additionally set a harmful precedent. Ought to the US turn out to be extra like China, banning apps or forcing them into the arms of home homeowners? Is that this actually a greater resolution than passing laws that holds all social media firms, no matter the place they’re primarily based, to greater requirements of privateness and safety?

The efforts to ban TikTok within the US have been steadily rising because it first rose to reputation in 2020, however right here’s a short timeline of the main occasions over the previous few years.

2020: The Trump administration tries to pressure a sale

Shortly after being banned in India, the Trump administration introduced that it was “trying into banning” TikTok and different Chinese language apps. This led to an FTC probe, which was nominally to research TikTok’s compliance with a 2019 regulation defending the information of kids beneath 13.

Finally, President Trump signed an govt order successfully banning each TikTok and WeChat within the US in August 2020. For the app to proceed to perform within the US, TikTok proprietor ByteDance would wish to promote the app to a non-Chinese language entity. At first Microsoft expressed curiosity, then Oracle, however each offers finally fell by way of.

Simply hours earlier than the ban was to take impact, a federal decide dominated that it violated the First Modification. Though the ban by no means took maintain, TikTok did proceed its partnership with Oracle. From this level onward, US information started to be saved on Oracle servers, and TikTok’s bodily footprint within the US grew considerably.

2022: TikTok will get proactive

Though no severe efforts to ban TikTok took maintain in 2021 or 2022, TikTok was nonetheless working behind the scenes to guard its place within the US. In June 2022, TikTok introduced that each one US information was now being housed on Oracle’s cloud servers. Oracle additionally started vetting TikTok’s algorithms to ensure they weren’t manipulated by Chinese language authorities.

These efforts had been a part of the so-called Venture Texas, named after Oracle’s headquarters in Texas. The $1.5 billion mission had the purpose of preserving all US information on US soil, held by a US firm, overseen by US personnel.

TikTok hoped that it could be sufficient to maintain safety issues from the US authorities at bay, however all it did was delay the inevitable.

2023: TikTok comes beneath fireplace as soon as once more

In early 2023 the Biden administration turned its consideration to TikTok, banning the app on all federal units and calling for stricter rules. As a part of a senate listening to that included representatives from Meta, X, and different social media firms, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was grilled over questions of TikTok’s safety, privateness, and security for kids.

Whereas a lot of the listening to amounted to nothing greater than political grandstanding, Home committees nonetheless beneficial a ban on the app. TikTok additionally claimed that the Biden administration started pressuring the corporate’s Chinese language homeowners to “divest their stakes within the standard video app or face a doable US ban.”

State legislators in Montana took issues into their very own arms, passing a state-wide ban on TikTok that might take impact on January 1, 2024. The ban by no means took impact, with judges taking pictures it down as unconstitutional and in violation of First Modification free speech protections. Elsewhere, extra states started banning the app on government-owned units.

2024: A ban looms, however TikTok takes it to SCOTUS

After mounting strain, the Home of Representatives handed a invoice in March 2024 to pressure ByteDance to promote its possession of TikTok in 165 days or face an entire ban within the US. The invoice would nonetheless have to go the US Senate to take impact, however President Biden has already acknowledged that he would signal the invoice if it passes. Regardless of this, his marketing campaign was nonetheless actively utilizing TikTok to succeed in youthful voters.

That first invoice was stalled within the Senate and by no means put to a vote. Nonetheless, one other regulation, which might pressure ByteDance to divest inside 9 months, handed the Home of Representatives and later the Senate in April 2024. This new regulation is tied to billions in support for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, in addition to sanctions in opposition to Iran.

The brand new package deal had a lot wider bipartisan help, and President Biden signed the invoice into regulation shortly afterward. Because it stands, the ban is because of come into impact on January 19, 2025. President-elect Donald Trump is because of be inaugurated the next day.

Unsurprisingly, TikTok sued the federal authorities over the ban, saying it was unconstitutional. This problem was dismissed by the US Court docket of Appeals for the DC Circuit, however in December, the US Supreme Court docket introduced that it could hear TikTok’s case on an expedited foundation. Full arguments are scheduled to be made earlier than the court docket on January 10 — simply 9 days earlier than the ban takes impact. The 2-hour listening to will solely proceed if TikTok has not been bought by the listening to date.

It seems that a decision is simply weeks away. If TikTok’s case is unsuccessful, ByteDance shall be compelled to promote the app to a different firm or abandon the US market. Each are equally inconceivable, so some onerous selections have to be made.