TikTok, the popular social media platform known for its short-form videos, is facing potential ban in America. The Trump administration has expressed concerns over national security and data privacy issues related to the Chinese-owned app. With millions of users in the United States, TikTok has become a cultural phenomenon, especially among younger generations.
The possibility of a ban has sparked debate among lawmakers, tech experts, and users alike. Some argue that banning TikTok would infringe on freedom of speech and limit access to a popular form of entertainment. Others believe that the app poses a legitimate threat to national security and should be banned.
Former President Trump reversed course and now opposes a ban on social media giant TikTok. But his new stance — and a full-court press from TikTok and its millions of users — isn’t swaying his fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill.
GOP leaders are charging ahead with a vote Wednesday on legislation that would ban TikTok from U.S. app stores unless its parent company, China-based ByteDance, agrees to divest the popular video-based video app.
Paul also argued that some Americans have a stake in TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, and that such a ban would be taking property away from Americans without proving a crime first.
“We know that the Chinese government does demand things, but we don’t know that any information really is going from TikTok to any of these people in China,” he said, noting that a provable crime is necessary to take property from Americans.
 Diana DeGette voted for the bill in committee, where it passed 50-0, along with another bill that would stop data brokers from selling or giving access to personal data to foreign adversaries. 
“These bills do not ban TikTok – these bills require TikTok to separate itself from control of the Chinese Communist Party. Together they protect our national security and safeguard Americans’ data,” DeGette in a statement. Like many other congressional officers, hers has been getting calls on the issue.
Social media experts say that TikTok can be a useful mobilizing tool for the MAGA faithful. “It has an extremely personalized algorithm,” says Ashley Johnson, a policy analyst for the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation in Washington. “It can amplify these filter bubbles we create for ourselves in terms of primarily or even only seeing political content that we agree with.”
The strategy has worked. TikTok grew by 12% from 2021 to 2023.  It’s now used by more than 150,000 million Americans, making it one of the most popular apps in the country. That runaway growth, members of Trump’s inner circle say, helps to explain why Trump went from trying to ban it to becoming its most prominent defender. “TikTok is more relevant now than when that executive order was written,” says the Trump operative. 
Prnce, who met her husband on TikTok, not only credits the app for her marriage but also says it’s helped roughly 50 queer Utah residents discover one another. Those people would not have met, Prnce said, were it not for a benefit event that @officiallyverygay held to support a struggling (now-closed) non-alcoholic bar in Salt Lake City. The only thing they shared in common? They all followed the same TikTok account.
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