On Aug. 6, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that the app TikTok would be banned in the United States unless sold to an American company by Sept. 16. The app suddenly came into the president’s sights as a security threat for the data it collects. The app collects its user’s GPS location, contacts, IP address, and other apps on the user’s phone. Donald Trump emphasizes TikTok being a Chinese owned company to claim that the American data it collects poses a security risk – as if this data was private through any other application. This data is nearly equal to that of what American owned companies, such as Facebook, collect.
COURTESY// CHRISTOPH SCHOLZ
This executive order comes only two months after the TikTok users began to cause some chaos for the Trump campaign, specifically the Tulsa Rally event. Only then did the threats begin against TikTok’s dangers. TikTok users began a video chain stating that they were reserving tickets to the Tulsa rally to inflate the number of attendees and possibly slow the spread of COVID-19.
The Trump campaign expected about a million attendees, but due to the viral spread of the TikToks, only 6,200 showed up to see Donald Trump speak. Since then, TikTok users have continued to plan more strategic plans that go against the president, all the while he is attempting to ban the application for being Chinese.
This ban is genuinely not a danger related target but a way to silence the young voices of thousands who use the app. The app’s market is similar to many social media apps that are all American owned. If the collected data were a problem, Google would be banned, but it is a massive American-owned tech conglomerate that Donald Trump would not dare touch.
The infamous app is on the verge of being sold, specifically to an American company, such as Microsoft or Walmart, who are attempting to purchase it. Either it is revoking the first amendment from the youth who could finally state their opinions freely or forcing an American only bid war, neither seems very fair. This action taken by the president is a capitalistic and even monopolistic way to force already large corporations to swallow consumers whole.
Tiktok is fighting for its rights to exist in a lawsuit against the Trump Administration, citing their right to due process and stating no actual security threats were found. With only 21 days left, users with large platforms are jumping ship and moving to other applications or abandoning the platform altogether. No end seems in sight for the negotiations nor the lawsuit. Since the ban announcement, alternative apps have become available that act like Tiktok, such as Likee, an app made by a Singapore owned company. Another app, Byte, has risen in popularity as a Vine 2.0 made in New York. Give it a month though and who says Donald Trump will not limit these apps too. Is it cybersecurity that is the issue, or is it the freedom of speech he does not like.
