TikTok
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, TikTok is a “social media platform designed for creating, editing, and sharing short videos between 15 seconds and three minutes in length. TikTok provides songs and sounds as well as filters and special effects that users can add to their videos.” The app, launched in 2018, is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. [1]
As noted by Britannica, “Regulators around the world have expressed privacy, safety, and security concerns about TikTok.” Specifically, there are concerns that the company could share sensitive user data with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), track the videos watched by Americans, and even manipulate the information seen by Americans to sway public opinion about China and influence American elections—serving, in a sense, as a propaganda and spying arm of the CCP. Some observers see this mission as part of China’s “Digital Silk Road” initiative, launched in 2015, which the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations defines as “a subset of [China’s] Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to enhance digital connectivity abroad, extend [the country’s] influence, and further China’s ascendance as a technological superpower.” Moreover, “While China’s Digital Silk Road has the potential to enhance digital connectivity in developing economies, it simultaneously has the capacity to spread authoritarianism, curtail democracy, and curb fundamental human rights.” [125]These concerns have led to debates, in the U.S. and around the world, about whether to ban the app. [1][2]
The U.S. government banned the app on government devices in 2022 and on any device used by a government official in 2023. Both the Trump and Biden administrations have also tried to force ByteDance to sell TikTok or to sell TikTok’s American operations. Thus far, ByteDance has refused to do so, though TikTok has reportedly taken steps to protect American data on servers in the United States. [7]
Concerns about the app intensified in March 2023 when reports emerged that the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) were investigating TikTok for allegations that its employees had inappropriately accessed American journalists’ data. Many observers worried that the app was spying on journalists for the Chinese government. [8]
Following the federal lead, a majority of states have also banned TikTok on government devices and networks. Only 12 states and D.C. did not have a statewide ban of TikTok on government devices as of Dec. 16, 2024. To the dismay of many students, some 20 college campuses have also banned TikTok from college Wi-Fi networks or on college-owned devices (many colleges are state-run, meaning college Wi-Fi networks and devices are state-owned).[15]
Beyond U.S. borders, TikTok was banned on NATO-issued devices on March 31, 2023. Australia, Canada, Denmark, the European Union, France, Latvia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, and Taiwan have also banned TikTok from government devices. Bangladesh, Belgium, Indonesia, and Pakistan have temporarily banned the social media app, while Afghanistan (2022) and India (2020) have banned the platform altogether. China has retaliated by prohibiting the U.S. version of TikTok and all other American social media apps. [16][17][18][19]
Some 50 percent of Americans support a TikTok ban by the U.S. government, with 22% opposed and 28% unsure. However, only 19% of TikTok users themselves support a ban, with 56% opposed and 24% unsure, according to a March 31, 2023, poll by the Pew Research Center. [20]
The question remains, with more than 1 billion monthly users of TikTok worldwide, and 150 million monthly users in the United States, should the U.S. government or state governments enact TikTok bans? [21]
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Pro 1: TikTok poses a threat to U.S. national security, serving as a propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party. Read More. | Con 1: TikTok is no more a threat than American-owned social media sites that also collect and sell user data. Read More. |
| Pro 2: TikTok is rife with dangerous misinformation that the government can and should rightly ban. Read More. | Con 2: TikTok has no more dangerous information than other social media sites, and attempts to ban it are unconstitutional. Read More. |
| Pro 3: A “tough on China” approach is needed to safeguard the United States and its citizens. Read More. | Con 3: Singling out China and TikTok for recriminations is xenophobic and rank political theater. Read More. |
Pro Arguments
(Go to Con Arguments)Pro 1: TikTok poses a threat to U.S. national security, serving as a propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party.
While TikTok may seem filled with innocuous cat videos and dance challenges, Chinese law requires that Chinese companies share information they gather with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), including users’ private data. “The CCP’s laws require Chinese companies like ByteDance to spy on their behalf. That means any Chinese company must grant the CCP access and manipulation capabilities as a design feature,” explains U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA). [2][22]
Should Chinese government officials gain access to TikTok user data, intelligence opportunities could be uncovered to recruit a spy, blackmail a target, or otherwise influence American culture to its benefit. The issue is not that the site collects personal data—many online sites do that—but that the country widely perceived as a competitor if not an enemy of the United States can see the information if not also manipulate content for nefarious political purposes. [23]
Furthermore, the Chinese government could manipulate TikTok’s algorithm or other operations to expose Americans to communist propaganda, which could be used to influence elections, domestic and international policy, and other political processes. [23]
“The U.S. government cannot ignore TikTok as a potential national security threat, even if efforts to crack down on the company alienate a generation of future voters….Republicans [and] Democrats agreed this is a threat….We have to deal with it before it’s too late,” implored then-U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI). [24]
Pro 2: TikTok is rife with dangerous misinformation that the government can and should rightly ban.
“TikTok is a misinformation minefield,” says journalist Queenie Wong. [25]
19.4% of TikTok videos, contain misinformation, according to a Sep. 2022 report. From “tutorials” to make dangerous drugs at home to extremists’ false political claims to misleading clips of speeches to deepfake videos, TikTok not only contains but promotes dangerous, inaccurate, and inappropriate information. [26]
While misinformation is a problem in and of itself, the concern is magnified significantly because, according to Google data, TikTok is being used as the primary search engine of Gen Z, so much so that The Wall Street Journal called the app the “new Google” in 2022. [26]
Researchers from the University of Regina note that TikTok is an especially difficult case because the platform only hosts videos: “Misinformation videos may pose a uniquely difficult target for debunking attempts because they often appear highly immersive, authentic, and relatable, which might cause people to process videos more superficially and believe them more readily.” [27]
“We shouldn’t be playing Whac-a-Mole with every individual piece of content, because it feels like we’re playing a losing game and there are much bigger battles to fight. But this stuff is really dangerous, even though it feels like a fact checker or reverse image search would debunk it in two seconds. It’s fundamentally feeding into this constant drip, drip, drip of stuff that’s reinforcing your worldview,” says Claire Wardle, codirector of the Information Futures Lab at Brown University. Banning TikTok is much more effective than the “Whac-a-Mole” approach to misinformation. [28]
Furthermore, TikTok is unique in promoting challenges that are dangerous and deadly. The “Tide Pod challenge” put TikTok on the radar in 2018 with an increase in calls to poison control centers. The dangerous and deadly challenge asked users to bite down on a laundry detergent packet, which led to the consumption of toxic chemicals that seriously burn the mouth, esophagus and respiratory tract. [29][30]
Despite at least six deaths from the laundry pod challenge, TikTok persisted in promoting dangerous challenges, from daring people to shave down their teeth with nail files to the “Coronavirus challenge,” in which users licked public toilet seats and subway hand grips to see who could contract COVID-19 first (not to mention any number of other communicable diseases). [29][30][31]
The “Borg challenge” called for mixing alcohol with caffeine, electrolytes, and water and led to the hospitalization of many college students. The “Blackout challenge” dared kids to choke each other to the point of unconsciousness and resulted in at least 20 deaths. The “Beezin’ challenge” asked young people to put menthol or peppermint lip balm on their eyelids under the mistaken impression that doing so would increase their alcohol or drug “buzz,” though the act could also cause blindness. And in 2024 a teen’s death was confirmed to be caused by participation in the “One Chip challenge,” which asks people to eat a “Paqui brand chip…dusted with the extremely hot Carolina Reaper and Naga Viper peppers.” [32][60]
No matter how many fact-checking and safety notices companies release to consumers, click-hungry and impressionable people will be misinformed and endanger themselves on TikTok. Taking away the platform is the only answer, and the American government has the authority to ban platforms linked to foreign adversaries. [33]
Pro 3: A “tough on China” approach is needed to safeguard the United States and its citizens.
China is a growing national security concern for the United States. The FBI cautions that the “counterintelligence and economic espionage efforts emanating from the government of China and the Chinese Communist Party are a grave threat to the economic well-being and democratic values of the United States.” [34]
U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT), who sponsored the Bipartisan RESTRICT Act, explains, “Congress has recognized that the Chinese Communist Party is not our dear friend. Any question about what China intends to do and what authoritarians intend to do is able to be seen by their treatment of the people in Hong Kong, the Uyghur people in China. You can see what authoritarians want to do [by] watching what Russia is doing in Ukraine. We have to recognize that we face geopolitical adversaries that are serious and threaten our security, our prosperity, and even the peace and freedom that we enjoy.” [35]
“One thing that is a lot worse than having our government infringe on our privacy “is having the Chinese Communist Party infringe on our privacy and be able to track us and follow us. Whether it is with social media or other technologies—communication technologies or the hardware that they devise over the coming years—we have to make sure we have the resources in place and the authorities in place to stop those things before they endanger us,” concludes Romney.[35]
While the threat may seem abstract to those who just want to participate in the #booktok or #musictok communities, China has been amping up espionage activities. A Chinese spy balloon operated over the United States from Jan. 28 to Feb. 4, 2023, collecting “intelligence from several sensitive American military sites,” including electronic signals from weapons systems and communications from those on the military sites. And two New York residents were arrested for operating an “illegal overseas police station…for a provincial branch of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC)” in Apr. 2023. [36][37]
Banning TikTok is but one crucial piece to a tough stance on China.
Con Arguments
(Go to Pro Arguments)Con 1: TikTok is no more a threat than American-owned social media sites that also collect and sell user data.
The Washington Post and Pellaeon Lin, researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, both examined TikTok independently and came to the conclusion that TikTok “does not appear to collect any more data than your typical mainstream social network.” In fact, Facebook and Google both collect more personal data from users than TikTok does. [23][38]
As Lin argues, “Governments around the world are ignoring their duty to protect citizens’ private information, allowing big tech companies to exploit user information for gain. Governments should try to better protect user information, instead of focusing on one particular app without good evidence….What I would call for is more evidence-based policy.” [23]
Furthermore, as investigative journalist Julia Angwin points out, data security issues are endemic to the industry: “At Twitter [now called X], internal controls were so lax that an ex-employee was convicted of using his access to spy on Saudi dissidents, and a whistleblower said that the company had hired an employee in India who had used his access to spy on Indian dissidents.” [52]
Rather than make TikTok a scapegoat for the social media industry, the U.S. government should better regulate the industry as a whole. [52]
Con 2: TikTok has no more dangerous information than other social media sites, and attempts to ban it are unconstitutional.
“For the average user, TikTok appears no more risky than Facebook. That’s not entirely a compliment,” explains technology columnist Geoffrey Fowler. [38]
“No government, as far as we know, has ever told Americans what they can or can’t download from an app store or access on the web,” TikTok states in a response to Montana’s ban.[39]
Banning TikTok would violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. As activist Evan Greer explains, “The US government can’t ban you from posting or watching TikTok videos any more than they can stop you from reading a foreign newspaper like the Times of India or writing an opinion piece for The Guardian.” [40]
“Do we really want to emulate Chinese speech bans? We don’t ban things that are unpopular in this country,” states Senator Rand Paul (R-KY. [22]
Furthermore, banning TikTok amounts to the government criminalizing specific businesses without evidence of wrongdoing. Not only would TikTok itself suffer, but the many businesses that use the platform could also be decimated. TikTok estimates that “nearly 5 million businesses seeking expansion and success, including countless small businesses,” use the app. Many small businesses rely solely on TikTok for promotion and sales. [9][41][42]
The government shouldn’t be allowed to remove a legitimate revenue stream from TikTok influencers, whether the additional income is a small boost (small accounts report between $9 to $38 a day) or a large brand deal like that of Jon Seaton, football player for Elon University, who earned $250,000 through TikTok deals with Meta and Dr. Pepper. [43][44]
The bottom line: banning speech and legal jobs is discriminatory, undemocratic, un-American, and unconstitutional.
Con 3: Singling out China and TikTok for recriminations is xenophobic and rank political theater.
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, xenophobia is the “fear and contempt of strangers or foreigners or of anything designated as foreign, or a conviction that certain foreign individuals and cultures represent a threat to the authentic identity of one’s own nation-state and cannot integrate into the local society peacefully.” [45]
In other words, TikTok bans are being considered solely because the U.S. and state governments fear China.
Herb Lin, senior researcher at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, explains, “Nobody would be paying this kind of attention if [TikTok] were British. It’s because it’s Chinese.” [53]
“This is xenophobic. And it’s part of another Red Scare,” explains U.S. Representative Jamaal Bowman (D-NY). Far more dangerous, he says, was the 2016 Russian disinformation campaign, the amplification of toxic rhetoric preceding the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar, and the organization of Jan. 6, 2021, insurrectionists on Facebook—all were more dangerous than TikTok having a Chinese owner. [46]
Plus, banning TikTok would give preference to American companies who commit the same data collection sins. Journalist Kara Swisher notes that the bans will help other social media sites, primarily Facebook. [47]
“Twitter,” she explains, “ is no Nirvana garden party; it’s a very toxic place—and so this is a bigger issue that [the U.S. government] should be dealing with, but in this case, they’re going to aim at TikTok because of the Chinese government.” [47]
“I’m not at all saying TikTok is innocent, “but focusing specifically on one app from one country is not going to solve whatever problem you think you’re solving. It truly misses the point. Do we really think that Facebook or Google are not capable of being influenced by the Chinese government? They know a market when they see one. I think the pressure that’s building is basically a race to be seen as tough on China.”concludes David Kahn Gillmor of the ACLU. [48]
The chance of an everyday person being specifically targeted by the Chinese government is low. “If you’re not a defense contractor or you’re not someone who’s likely to be of specific interest to the Chinese government,…then I would say your risk is much higher from Facebook and Instagram, all those things where those companies are doing the best to hire people to figure out how to make you more addicted to their product.” says Justin Cappos, engineering professor at New York University. Digital addiction is a bigger concern than espionage. [53]
“I cannot stress this enough—the national security concerns are purely hypothetical. And rather hysterical,” argues CNN senior editor Allison Morrow. [49]
Journalist Karl Bode calls the ban rhetoric “the great TikTok moral panic of 2023” and notes that the uproar over TikTok is simply a purposeful distraction from the lack of larger policy solutions for the industry at large. [50]
In the end, what we have here is “a big dumb performance in which we pretend that banning a single app actually does anything of use. After all, the Chinese, Russian, and U.S. governments can all just buy data from the poorly regulated data broker market. They don’t need TikTok for surveillance and propaganda; they have plenty of data brokers and U.S. tech giants for that.” Bode continues.[50]
“Just that myopically fixating on the ban of one app “but doing nothing about the shitty policy environment that created the problem—is more political performance than meaningful solution. A performance that will annoy young voters, make it tougher on researchers and educators, uproot established community, face numerous First Amendment challenges, and not actually fix the core issues.” explains Bode. [50]
Calls to ban TikTok give politicians the opportunity to appear to be “tough on China” without pinpointing or addressing actual threats. [51]
U.S. Federal and State Bans on TikTok
International Bans on TikTok
The following list may not be comprehensive and does not reflect all current or former temporary bans.
| jurisdiction | date | details of ban |
|---|---|---|
| Afghanistan | Apr. 21, 2022 | Taliban spokesperson Inamullah Samangani tweeted, "The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is required to block PUBG games and an application called TikTok, which misleads the younger generation." "Likewise, it must prevent as much as possible the publication of any channel that publishes immoral material and programs." [101] |
| Australia | Apr. 4, 2023 | The ban applies to federal government devices. [102] Australia banned all social media apps for people under 16 on Nov. 28, 2024. [103] |
| Belgium | Mar. 10, 2023 Sept. 15, 2023 Mar. 20, 2024 | Prime Minister Alexander de Croo stated, “We are in a new geopolitical context where influence and surveillance between states have shifted to the digital world.” He continued, “We must not be naive: TikTok is a Chinese company which today is obliged to cooperate with the intelligence services. This is the reality. Prohibiting its use on federal service devices is common sense.” The original ban was for six months and was extended in Sept. 2023 for an additional six months. In March 2024, the ban was extended indefinitely for government devices.[105][106][107] |
| Canada | Feb. 27, 2023 | Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated, “I suspect that as government takes the significant step of telling all federal employees that they can no longer use TikTok on their work phones many Canadians from business to private individuals will reflect on the security of their own data and perhaps make choices.” He added, “I’m always a fan of giving Canadians the information for them to make the right decisions for them.” [108] |
| Denmark | Mar. 6, 2023 | The ban applies to federal work employees. [109] |
| European Union | Feb. 23, 2023 Feb. 28, 2023 | The European Commission and the Council of the European Union banned TikTok from staff devices on Feb. 23, 2023. The move was quickly followed by a ban on European Parliament on Feb. 28. [110][111] |
| France | Mar. 24, 2023 | France banned “recreational” use of TikTok, plus Instagram, Netflix, X (formerly Twitter), gaming apps like Candy Crush, and dating apps, among others on government employee phones. [112] |
| India | June 29, 2020 | TikTok was one of 59 Chinese apps banned by the Indian government amid border skirmishes. India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said the apps were “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India.” The number of banned apps was expanded to 118 on Sept. 2, 2020, after another border incident. [113][114] |
| Latvia | Mar. 1, 2023 | President Edgars Rinkēvičs posted on X: “For security reasons, I have deleted my Tittok [sic] account, @arlietas [Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia] prevents the use of this application on smart devices with ministry emails installed.” [115] |
| Netherlands | Mar. 21, 2023 | The Dutch government did not explicitly ban TikTok but stated, “For civil servants employed by the national government, it is immediately discouraged to have apps from countries with an offensive cyber program against the Netherlands and/or Dutch interests installed and used on their mobile work devices.” [116] |
| New Zealand | Mar. 31, 2023 | The government announced a TikTok ban for Parliament on Mar. 17, 2023. The ban took effect at the end of the month with the app automatically removed from lawmakers’ devices. Parliamentary Service Chief Executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said anyone who needed the app to perform their work could ask for special arrangements. Other government agencies were allowed to make their own decisions regarding a ban. [117] |
| Norway | Mar. 21, 2023 | Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl explained, “the Norwegian intelligence services single out Russia and China as the main risk factors for Norway’s security interests.” And, "They also single out social media as a forum favoured by potentially dangerous actors and others who want to influence us with disinformation and fake news." Government staff may use TikTok (and the also-banned Telegram) for work on devices that are not connected to the government’s digital systems. [118] |
| Pakistan | Oct. 2020 | Pakistan has placed nationwide bans on TikTok temporarily at least four times since Oct. 2020. [18] |
| Sengal | Aug. 2023 | Senegal banned TikTok for distributing "hateful and subversive messages.” Rédaction Africanews reported, “In negotiations with TikTok, the government sought enhanced platform regulation, inquired about algorithm functionality and data protection, and pressed for fair compensation for content creators, enabling young people to sustain a livelihood through social media.” [122] |
| Taiwan | 2019 | An executive order banned TikTok, Douyin (“China’s TikTok”), and Xiaohongshu (another Chinese video app) from government devices in 2019. [119][120] |
| United Kingdom | Mar. 16, 2023 | Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden stated, “Given the particular risk around government devices, which may contain sensitive information, it is both prudent and proportionate to restrict the use of certain apps, particularly when it comes to apps where a large amount of data can be stored and accessed.” [121] |
Historical Timeline
2012 - ByteDance Is Founded
Zhang Yiming, a former Microsoft and Kuxan (a Chinese flight and hotel search engine) employee, founds ByteDance. According to historian James Hardy, Zhang’s idea was “to harness the power of artificial intelligence to revolutionize the way internet users engage with content. This vision was deeply rooted in the belief that personalized content was key.” [66]
July 2014 - Early Version of musical.ly Launches on iTunes
Alex Zhu and Luyu Yang, both Shanghai based, launched the first iteration of musical.ly on the iTunes app store. Zhu said the idea for the hybrid music-video app was born while riding the train and seeing teenagers taking selfies while listening to music. The app was marketed as a “teen karaoke” experience.[63]
April 2015 through March 2016 - muscial.ly Takes Off
In July 2015, after muscial.ly instituted a leader board of the most popular videos and allowed users to follow, favorite other user’s posts, and “duet” with other users virtually, the app’s popularity took off and landed in the top spot on iTunes downloads. By March 2016, the app had 60 million active users and had acquired $100 million in venture capital, making the company worth $500 million. [63]
Sept. 2016 - ByteDance Launches Douyin
Douyin is frequently called the “Chinese TikTok,” though the app pre-dates TikTok by a year and remains entirely separate from TikTok. Douyin means “shaking sound” in Chinese and refers to the app’s music and sound focused content. The app, which remains only available in China, found early success by simplifying the social media experience, localizing content to specific Chinese cultural audiences, using artificial intelligence (AI) to tailor the algorithm, and launching at a moment when China was experiencing a swell in mobile internet use. Douyin is frequently used to test features before they go live internationally. [66][67]
June 2017 - China’s National Intelligence Law Goes into Effect
Perhaps the cornerstone of global security concern surrounding TikTok is the 2017 National Intelligence Law. The oft-cited portions of the law (as revised in 2018) state:
Article 7: All organizations and citizens shall support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts in accordance with law, and shall protect national intelligence work secrets they are aware of. The State is to protect individuals and organizations that support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts.
Article 12: In accordance with relevant State provisions, national intelligence work institutions may establish cooperative relationships with relevant individuals and organizations, and retain them to carry out related work.
Article 14: National intelligence work institutions lawfully carrying out intelligence efforts may request that relevant organs, organizations, and citizens provide necessary support, assistance, and cooperation. [88]
The law emphasized global concerns over the Chinese Communist Party’s ability to collect user information from TikTok as well as the party’s ability to flood the app with Chinese Communist propaganda.[77][78]
Sep. 13, 2017 - TikTok Launches in Indonesia
"As Indonesia has the sixth largest population of Internet users in the world, we see a huge market opportunity for our app. Our Tik Tok community is growing rapidly in China and starting to spread globally, including to Indonesia. We are planning to cultivate more content creators in Indonesia, as talented youth across the region love to celebrate, create, and share. Making music videos is becoming more fun with advanced technology and a world of Tik Tok supporters to cheer them on," said TikTok’s head of marketing Viv Gong. [74]
Nov. 2017 - ByteDance Acquires musical.ly
Looking for an entrance into the global market, ByteDance acquired musical.ly for a reported $800 million to $1 billion. The deal allowed musical.ly to continue to operate independently while taking advantage of ByteDance’s AI technology. [68][69]
Aug. 2, 2018 - TikTok Merges with musical.ly, Launching App in United States
Consolidating the platforms means that muscial.ly users’ accounts were shifted onto the TikTok. At the time of the merger, reports indicated musical.ly had 100 million monthly active users, while TikTok had 500 million. Alex Zhu, cofounder of muscial.ly and senior vice president of TikTok, said, “TikTok, the sound of a ticking clock, represents the short nature of the video platform. We want to capture the world’s creativity and knowledge under this new name and remind everyone to treasure every precious life moment. Combining musical.ly and TikTok is a natural fit given the shared mission of both experiences.”[73][75]
Jan. 26, 2019 - TikTok Allows Advertising
A Grubhub ad was spotted on TikTok in early 2019, marking the social media platform’s first foray into advertising. [76]
Nov. 1, 2019 - TikTok Reportedly Under U.S. National Security Review
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a federal panel chaired by the U.S. Treasury Department that reviews national security issues related to foreign acquisitions of American companies, was reported to be investigating ByteDance,. for censoring politically sensitive content, and raising questions about how it stores personal data. The review was allegedly prompted by the 2018 musical.ly and TikTok merger; because ByteDance did not seek approval from CFIUS, the committee has jurisdiction to investigate. [81][82]
Dec. 16, 2019 - U.S. Department of Defense Issues Guidance on TikTok
The Defense Department issued a “Cyber Awareness Message” that warned "TikTok [has] potential security risks associated with its use” and that all employees should "be wary of applications you download, monitor your phones for unusual and unsolicited texts etc., and delete them immediately and uninstall TikTok to circumvent any exposure of personal information." [84]
Dec. 2019 - U.S. Army and Navy Ban TikTok on Government Devices
The bans followed the guidance issued by the Department of Defense earlier in Dec. 2019 and do not extend to personal devices. [84][85][86]
Jan. 2020 - U.S. Marine Corps Bans TikTok on Government Devices
U.S.M.C. spokesperson Capt. Christopher Harrison told the New York Times, “This decision is consistent with our efforts to proactively address existing and emerging threats as we secure and defend our network. This block only applies to government-issued mobile devices.” [87]
Jan. 3, 2020 - U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard Confirm TikTok Bans
The military branches confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that the app has been banned from government devices, following DoD guidance. [90]
Aug. 6, 2020 - President Donald Trump Issues Executive Order 13942
U.S. President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13942, which banned transactions between ByteDance and U.S. citizens, effectively banning the app altogether. [3]
Sep. 19, 2020 - Oracle Partners with TikTok as Part of “Project Texas”
“Project Texas” is the name of TikTok’s effort to store American data to the United States and thereby mitigate national security concerns. The centerpiece of that effort is a partnership with the Texas-based information technology company Oracle.
“As a part of this agreement, TikTok will run on the Oracle Cloud and Oracle will become a minority investor in TikTok Global,” said Oracle CEO Safra Catz. “Oracle will quickly deploy, rapidly scale, and operate TikTok systems in the Oracle Cloud. We are a hundred percent confident in our ability to deliver a highly secure environment to TikTok and ensure data privacy to TikTok’s American users, and users throughout the world. This greatly improved security and guaranteed privacy will enable the continued rapid growth of the TikTok user community to benefit all stakeholders.” [91][92]
Nov. 12, 2020 - U.S. Department of Commerce Will Not Enforce TikTok Ban
Citing a court case brought by three TikTok stars—Douglas Marland (comedian), Cosette Rinab (fashion influencer), and Alex Chambers (musician)—the U.S. Department of Commerce stated that it would not enforce the ban. [4]
May 19, 2021 - ByteDance CEO Steps Down
ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming announced he was stepping down as CEO, but remaining with the company as chairman. He stated, “I’m more interested I \n analyzing organizational and market principles, and leveraging these theories to further reduce management work, rather than actually managing people.” He added, “Similarly, I’m not very social, preferring solitary activities like being online, reading, listening to music, and contemplating what may be possible." The reins were handed over to Liang Rubo, Zhang’s college roommate and head of ByteDance’s human resources department. [72]
June 11, 2021 - President Joe Biden Overturns Trump Executive Order 13942
President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14034, which overturned Trump’s executive order 13942 (as well as two other Trump executive orders that focused on Chinese social media companies) and ordered a review of foreign-owned apps by government agencies. [5]
Oct. 26, 2021 - TikTok’s Michael Beckerman Testifies in Subcommittee
During the Senate subcommittee—”Protecting Kids Online: Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube”—Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s Vice President and Head of Public Policy for the Americas, testified, “It truly does take a village to keep minors safe online, and we will continue to work with teenagers, parents, child safety experts and organizations, policymakers, and other interested stakeholders to continue to improve and do better.” [123]
June 17, 2022 - BuzzFeed Reports TikTok Employees Repeatedly Accessed American User Data
“Leaked audio from more than 80 internal TikTok meetings ... contain 14 statements from nine different TikTok employees indicating that engineers in China had access to US data between September 2021 and January 2022, at the very least,” according to BuzzFeed.
“The recordings range from small-group meetings with company leaders and consultants to policy all-hands presentations and are corroborated by screenshots and other documents, providing a vast amount of evidence to corroborate prior reports of China-based employees accessing US user data. Their contents show that data was accessed far more frequently and recently than previously reported, painting a rich picture of the challenges the world’s most popular social media app has faced in attempting to disentangle its US operations from those of its parent company in Beijing. Ultimately, the tapes suggest that the company may have misled lawmakers, its users, and the public by downplaying that data stored in the US could still be accessed by employees in China,” summarized BuzzFeed News Reporter Emily Baker-White. [94]
July 2022 - “Project Texas” Begins Roll Out
The plan “addresses data security, works to protect influence over content, and ensures there are no backdoors into the app. Under Project Texas, TikTok’s American operations would be siloed and monitored by an in-house committee called TikTok U.S. Data Security—leadership for which would be approved by the U.S. government. Under the new organizational structure, TikTok would also utilize the Committee of Foreign Investment in the United States, an interagency U.S. governmental committee that has handled TikTok negotiations for the last few years, as a third-party security resource. Additionally, Oracle would be able to review TikTok’s code and software in “transparency centers,” and monitor global data flows necessary to allow U.S. TikTok users to engage with the app’s international content. The U.S. government will reportedly also be able to access the transparency centers,” according to Texas Monthly journalists Amanda O’Donnell and Lauren Castro. [93]
July 13 2022 - FCC Commissioner Says Troops’ TikTok Use Endangers U.S. Military
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr testified to Congress, “With TikTok, this is a device right in your pocket. It’s going inside the military installation, looking at location data, which can give people information on troop movements.” He continued, “There’s a range of ways that that sensitive data going back to Beijing with their sophisticated [artificial intelligence] can ultimately be used to harm U.S. national security.”
Furthermore, “All of the concerns with TikTok are heightened in the military context,” according to Carr, because “At its core, TikTok functions as a sophisticated surveillance tool that harvests extensive amounts of sensitive data from search and browsing history, keystroke patterns, location data, and biometrics including face prints and voice prints.” [88]
Oct. 20, 2022 - Forbes Reports ByteDance Plan to Surveil Physical Locations of Specific U.S. Citizens
Documents obtained by Forbes revealed TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, had plans to use TikTok’s IP tracking ability to monitor the physical locations of specific American citizens. While Forbes did not disclose the reported purposes of the surveillance to protect its sources, the news outlet noted the goal was not targeted ads, which is the usual reason apps have for tracking user location. The tracking is a direct contradication to what ByteDance told American lawmakers: that access to sensitive user data will be “limited only to authorized personnel, pursuant to protocols being developed with the U.S. Government.” The unit responsible for the tracking—ByteDance’s Internal Audit and Risk Control department—reports to executive Song Ye, who in turn reports directly to ByteDance cofounder and CEO Rubo Liang. [80]
Dec. 22, 2022 - ByteDance Reveals Data Leak
New York Times journalist Cecilia Kang explains, “a few employees on a ByteDance team responsible for monitoring employee conduct tried to find the sources of suspected leaks of internal conversations and business documents to journalists. In doing so, the employees gained access to the IP addresses and other data of two reporters and a small number of people connected to the reporters via their TikTok accounts. They were trying to determine if those individuals were within proximity of ByteDance employees, according to the company, which added that the efforts failed to find any leaks.” The four employees involved--two in China and two in the United States--were fired, but the incident increased concern about the security of user data on the app. [79]
Dec. 29, 2022 - Biden Signs No TikTok on Government Devices Act
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, signed on Dec. 29, 2022, included the No TikTok on Government Devices Act championed by U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO). The act requires TikTok to be removed from all U.S. government devices and bans government employees from downloading the app on government devices as of Mar. 29, 2023 (30 days after the memorandum was issued), instructing the heads of executive departments and agencies to enact the change).[6]
Feb. 24, 2023 - DATA Act Introduced to the House of Representatives
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) introduced H.R.1153—the Deterring America’s Technological Adversaries (DATA) Act—to Congress on Feb. 24, 2023. The bill sought to clarify that sensitive personal data of the sort TikTok might collect is not “information or informational materials.” The clarification would allow the U.S. president to regulate and block foreign-owned property and assets under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The bill did not make it out of committee in the House of Representatives. [64]
Mar. 7, 2023 - RESTRICT Act Introduced to the Senate
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced S.686—Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act—on Mar. 7, 2023. The bill would have required that the federal government, specifically the Department of Commerce, to “identify, deter, distrupt, prevent, prohibit, investigate, and mitigate transactions” that involve information and communications technology products “in which any foreign adversary (such as China) has any interest” and pose a national security or safety risk. The bill was referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, but no further action was taken. [65]
Mar. 23, 2023 - U.S. Congress Questions TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew
Committee Chair Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) opened the hearing by stating, “Mr. Chew, you are here because the American people need the truth about the threat TikTok poses to our national and personal security.” To which the CEO responded, “Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country.” Lawmakers questioned the ability of ByteDance to protect American data and why Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese counterpart, does not allow the violent or otherwise dangerous videos that flood TikTok. [83]
Apr. to May 2023 - Montana Bans TikTok for All Users and Faces Lawsuits
Montana went a step further. On Apr. 14, 2023, legislators in Montana passed SB0419, which would ban TikTok in Montana and prohibit online stores from offering the social media app as of Jan. 1, 2024. The ban includes a $10,000 penalty per violation per day for TikTok and the app store providing the platform. However, individual users would not be subject to the fine. If TikTok were sold to “a company that is not incorporated in an adversarial nation,” the ban would be lifted. Montana Governor Greg Gianforte sent the bill back to the legislature with amendments that would expand the ban to all social media apps that provide “certain data to foreign adversaries” and remove penalties for app stores.
Gianforte signed the amended bill into law on May 17, 2023, banning TikTok in Montana. The next day, five TikTok content creators filed a lawsuit against the state, and TikTok filed a lawsuit against the state on May 22, 2023. Both lawsuits claim the law violates the First Amendment. [9][10][11][12][13][14]
June 2, 2023 - Department of Defense Bans TikTok
Following several years of guidance requesting that employees not use TikTok, the DoD has officially banned TikTok on all devices connected to government systems. The rule states, “This prohibition applies to devices regardless of whether the device is owned by the government, the contractor, or the contractor’s employees (e.g., employee-owned devices that are used as part of an employer bring your own device (BYOD) program).” [89]
Nov. 30, 2023 - Federal Judge Blocks Montana’s TikTok Ban
Judge Donald W. Molloy stated, “The current record leaves little doubt that Montana’s Legislature and attorney general were more interested in targeting China’s ostensible role in TikTok than with protecting Montana consumers [and this] foray into foreign affairs interprets the United States’ current foreign policy interests and intrudes on them.” The law remained on hold pending the ruling in a federal lawsuit about whether the U.S. government is allowed to ban TikTok. [54][71]
Jan. 31, 2024 - TikTok CEO Testifies to Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing
During the hearing, Shou Chew stated, “The steps we’re taking to protect teens are a critical part of our larger trust and safety work, as we continue our voluntary and unprecedented efforts to build a safe and secure data environment for US users – ensuring our platform remains free from outside manipulation and implementing safeguards on our content recommendation and moderation tools.” [124]
Mar. 13, 2024 - Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act Passed in House of Representatives
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which would force ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban in American app stores. While the bill passed the House 352–65 and President Biden has indicated support, the bill has not received a Senate vote. [55][56]
Apr. 23, 2024 - President Biden Signed into Law the National Security Package
The package contains aid to Ukraine and Israel, among other countries, and the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, dubbed the “TikTok bill.” This act requires TikTok, or any other app deemed to be a “foreign adversary-controlled application,” to be sold to an American owner or face a ban in the United States. The owners have 270 days to sell the app—a timeline that can be extended up to a year by the president—before the app will be removed from app stores and blocked by American Internet service providers. The act is certain to be contested in court on First Amendment grounds. [57]
May 7, 2024 - ByteDance Sues to Stop Ban
TikTok and parent company ByteDance filed a petition in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to block the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, stating that the law is unconstitutional and based on “speculative and analytically flawed concerns about data security and content manipulation—concerns that, even if grounded in fact, could be addressed through far less restrictive and more narrowly tailored means.” A week later, on May 14, a group of TikTok users filed suit, saying the potential ban “threatens to deprive them, and the rest of the country, of this distinctive means of expression and communication.” [58][59]
Aug. 2, 2024 - DOJ and FTC File Civil Lawsuit against TikTok
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FCC) filed a civil lawsuit against TikTok. The lawsuit claims that “from 2019 to the present, TikTok knowingly permitted children to create regular TikTok accounts and to create, view, and share short-form videos and messages with adults and others on the regular TikTok platform. The defendants collected and retained a wide variety of personal information from these children without notifying or obtaining consent from their parents. Even for accounts that were created in ‘Kids Mode’ (a pared-back version of TikTok intended for children under 13), the defendants unlawfully collected and retained children’s email addresses and other types of personal information. Further, when parents discovered their children’s accounts and asked the defendants to delete the accounts and information in them, the defendants frequently failed to honor those requests. The defendants also had deficient and ineffectual internal policies and processes for identifying and deleting TikTok accounts created by children.” TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek, responded, “We disagree with these allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed. We are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to update and improve the platform.” [61][62]
Oct. 8, 2024 - 14 Attorneys General Sue TikTok
After a nearly two-year investigation, 13 state attorneys general and the D.C. attorney general have sued TikTok, alleging that the company not only knew of the harm it was inflicting on teens, but also purposefully addicted minors to the app and deceived the public about the risks. The lawsuits point to TikTok’s knowledge of the points that users can become addicted after watching 260 videos--about half an hour of viewing due to the videos ultra-short lengths--and that time-restrictions were only successful in gaining public trust rather than actually mediating mental illness risks. Futhermore, the lawsuit claims that TikTok knows the dangers of beauty and other filters popular on the app, but still actively promotes their use; and TikTok’s content moderation is faulty at best and actively promoting dangerous self-harm content at worst. Finally, TikTok is slow to remove users under 13, despite company policy. [95][96]
Oct. 8, 2024 - Internal TikTok Documents Reveal Plan to Influence U.S. Politicians
Part of the Kentucky Attorney General’s lawsuit included redacted documents, uncovered by Kentucky Public Radio, that revealed TikTok planned to “identify TikTok accounts that might persuade each politician - along with his or her staff - as to the value of the Platform.” The goal was to alleviate politicians’ concerns about the app’s connections to China. The lawsuit specifically states that TikTok targeted Republican stalwart Mitch McConnell with videos from Kentucky businesses including a hot dog shop, a record store, a rural internet company, and a bait and ammunition store.[98]
Oct. 11, 2024 - Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) Request TikTok Internal Documents on Child Endangerment
In a letter to CEO Shou Zi Chew, the senators state, “We write in response to shocking revelations of TikTok’s awareness of, and indifference to, its platform’s substantial harm to children and teens, and to demand documents,communications, and research held by TikTok regarding the safety of minors on its platform. According to information contained in a court filing from the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office, TikTok has knowingly designed their products in a manner that can cause substantial harm to kids – including fostering destructive addiction and amplifying child sexualexploitation.1 Rather than address these risks, TikTok instead seemingly misled the public about the safety of its platform.” [97]
Dec. 6, 2024 - Federal Appeals Court Upholds Federal Ability to Ban TikTok
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the federal government was not violating the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, stating, "The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States. Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.” Representatives for TikTok have stated that the company will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. While the law requires that TikTok be sold by Jan. 17, 2025 or face a nationwide ban, a potential Supreme Court case and a transition in power to the second Donald Trump administration on Jan. 20, 2025 brings the enforcement of the law into question. [70]
Dec. 8, 2024 - TikTok Requests Temporary Freeze on TikTok Ban Law
TikTok asked a federal court to temporarily freeze the implemenation of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, signed by Biden in April. A freeze would allow TikTok the time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court as well as postpone any implementation until after the transition to the second Trump administration. Trump has said he would “save TikTok,” though what that means is unclear. Without a freeze, the law requires that ByteDance sell TikTok by Jan. 19, 2025 or face a ban in the United States. [99][100]
Dec. 13, 2024 - D.C. Circuit Court Denies Request to Freeze TikTok Ban Law
In an unsigned order, the judges wrote, “The petitioners [TikTok] have not identified any case in which a court, after rejecting a constitutional challenge to an Act of Congress, has enjoined the Act from going into effect while review is sought in the Supreme Court." [104]
Dec. 16, 2024 - TikTok Asks the U.S. Supreme Court Emergency Stay on TikTok Ban Law
TikTok lawyers argued, "A modest delay in enforcing the [Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications] Act will create breathing room for this Court to conduct an orderly review and the new Administration to evaluate this matter — before this vital channel for Americans to communicate with their fellow citizens and the world is closed." [126]
Dec. 18, 2024 - U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Review TikTok Law
Oral arguments are scheduled for Jan. 10, 2025. The Supreme Court did not stay the sale or ban law in the meantime.