Unraveling the TikTok Ban: Navigating Impacts and Insights for the U.S
Author: Wu Hong Feng (William), Research Executive
Editor: Tavisha Jain, Research Director
On March 6th this year, the bill that could potentially ban TikTok in the United States officially passed. The bill grants TikTok approximately six months to completely divest from its parent company ByteDance and sell its equity to a technology company controlled entirely by American investors (Harwell, 2024).
As the most popular social media app among young people in the United States with over 100 million monthly active users, TikTok's market value is estimated at $150 billion (Harwell, 2024). Its high valuation has deterred some tech companies, including Snapchat, from making acquisitions. If TikTok fails to sell within six months, the social media app will be officially banned (Han, 2024). Although there are former US Treasury Secretaries currently organizing the acquisition, this remains an historically complex and thorny transaction.
Once TikTok is banned, it will have two major impacts. Firstly, there are now over 100,000 influencers in the United States relying on the TikTok platform for their livelihoods, and potentially millions of creators who have put their heart and soul into hoping to gain high exposure on this platform to improve their income and standard of living (Sid, 2022). A complete ban of this app would lead to a massive number of people experiencing temporary unemployment. Even if they successfully transition to other social media platforms like Facebook, the exposure and earning potential of their creations cannot be guaranteed to match what they had before. For instance, one creator uploaded the same video to TikTok and Facebook; while it garnered over 300,000 views on TikTok, it received less than 30,000 views on Facebook (Sid, 2022). Platform differences will result in unstable income. If they cannot adapt to other platforms, these creators will face a significant reduction in their quality of life and may even be forced to change careers. Furthermore, this platform is currently the preferred choice of 60% of Generation Z, with over 150 million users (VOGELS, 2022). The ban of the platform will lead to significant concerns about freedom of speech and potential social unrest, as well as a decrease in trust in the government (Han, 2024).
The second concern is the widespread dissatisfaction of the Chinese government and Ministry of Commerce with the complete ban of TikTok, which could potentially lead to diplomatic friction between China and the United States (Harwell, 2024). The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs openly criticized the Biden administration's actions on the day the bill was passed, hinting that China may retaliate with commercial sanctions. Currently, the US government has no evidence to prove that TikTok leaks data to the Chinese government, although data leakage is not the sole reason for the ban. The United States has also criticized its potential for causing mental health issues, with the Anti-Defamation Centre finding that content promoting eating disorders on the platform was very popular, with over 13.2 billion views last year (Amnesty, 2023). The same report found that TikTok often recommends unsafe videos to those interested in mental health content (VOGELS, 2022). Additionally, TikTok's rapid growth has brought competitive pressure to local businesses and has also raised concerns about wasting time using TikTok. Multiple factors have contributed to the issuance of the ban on TikTok in the United States.
Further Readings
Josselyn, K. (2024). TikTok's impact on mental health. Sanctuary Personnel. https://www.sanctuarypersonnel.com/blog/2023/05/tiktoks-impact-on-mental-health?source=google.com
ZALIZAN, T. (14 3, 2024). Explainer: Potential TikTok ban in US — what's likely to happen next and what are the implications for users? Mtoday. https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/explainer-potential-tiktok-ban-us-whats-likely-happen-next-and-what-are-implications-users-2382636
References
Amnesty. (2023, November 7). DRIVEN INTO THE DARKNESS. Amnesty International. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/11/tiktok-risks-pushing-children-towards-harmful-content/ Han, B. (2024, March 20). US House vote on TikTok ban suggests broader prism than just pro- or anti-China. South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3256012/us-house-vote-tiktok-ban-suggests-broader-prism-just-pro-or-anti-china?campaign=3256012&module=perpetual_scroll_0&pgtype=article
Harwell, D. (2024, March 17). House TikTok bill gives ByteDance 6 months to sell. That’s unlikely. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/03/17/tiktok-sale-ban-challenges/
Sid, M. (2022). TikTok Ban: What it Means for Influencer Marketing. Afluencer. https://afluencer.com/tiktok-ban-what-it-means-for-influencer-marketing/
VOGELS, E. A. (2022, August 10). Teens, Social Media and Technology 2022. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/