TikTok is the social media app that everyone is talking about. Whether you have the app or not, you probably have heard about it before. TikTok is a platform for creating, sharing, and discovering short videos. On TikTok, there’s a place for everyone! Videos range from lip-syncing, dancing, comedy, relatable, giving advice and so much more! Over 1 billion people use this fun entertaining app every day. If this app is so great, why is our government trying to ban it? Many countries are trying to ban TikTok because they are concerned about TikTok’s security and platform ties with China. Our lawmakers fear that the Chinese government could use security laws to force ByteDance (a Chinese internet technology company) to hand over data about TikTok’s US users. Despite this worry, TikTok insists it would not provide foreign user data to the Chinese government. Whether you have TikTok or another social media app you are still giving out your information. With this knowledge, TikTok is just as safe as any other social media platform can be. It’s up to you how much information you want to put out there about yourself for people to see. Daily Mail posted a video on TikTok of the CEO of TikTok saying, “Make no mistake, This is a ban, a ban on TikTok, and a ban on you and your voice.”
I believe there are many more positive aspects to the app than there are negative ones. For example, I love using TikTok for its catchy songs and relatable content. I always enjoy sending funny videos to my friends and family. The app is entertaining and good for making friends, learning, creating content and so much more! Kaylee, a junior at Dover shares her opinion about the app, “I love using TikTok because I always find fun videos and I get lots of inspiration from them!” Not only is TikTok good entertainment, but anyone at any age can enjoy it, even ages as young as 6 to 75 watch TikTok. The majority of its users are the younger crowd, and the website Exploding Topics states that 47% of TikTok users are under 30 years old. So no matter what age you are, TikTok has something for you. One of the downfalls of TikTok is that it can be very addictive. That is how the app got its name, time flies by when you’re scrolling through the app…tick tock tick tock! Luckily there are ways for you to still enjoy the app without scrolling for hours. On the TikTok settings, you’re able to change your screen time limit to as long as you want. For example, I give myself an hour a day on TikTok, and it reminds me when to get off. Overall Tik TikTok is a great community to be on as long as you are watchful of your screen time. The Chinese government is not something we need to ban TikTok over because so many great things come from this app. I vote to keep TikTok!
The main reason Chew Shou Zi, the CEO of TikTok is going to court is because people in other countries may have beliefs that they are sharing the user data with more companies. The New York Times says, “Lawmakers in numerous countries have expressed concerns that TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, may expose sensitive user data.”
There might be 100 different arguments on why we should keep or ban TikTok. There could be 100 different allegations against TikTok. There could be more than 300,000 people worldwide left without a job. TikTok is a platform where we get to watch funny, political, historical, sports, and informative videos. Those videos are what make us laugh, and ultimately, better our day. Some videos can gain up to 1 – 5 million views a day and it could be the same way for the likes and comments of those videos.
Leah Halton has one of the fastest-growing videos of all time. As of April 15th, that video has 657.7 million views and 45.4 million likes. TikTok normally pays $20 to $40 for every one million views so if we take $30 per million views, that one video has made her around $19,000 compared to Bella Porches 817.7 over 3 years. Just from that video, she made around $24,000, if Leah’s video keeps up at the pace it is now it could surpass Bella’s by a couple million views and thousands of dollars. Explodingtopics.com said, “Just under one-third of influencers are making a full-time salary.” That means one-third of people would be left without a source of money and wouldn’t be able to pay taxes or utility bills. These creators are making money through TikTok’s Creator Fund program which helps the creators funnel money into their accounts.
Not only are there many positive aspects to the TikTok app, but it helps people create a source of income, whether it be selling items from their small businesses or creating appealing and popular content. Taking away the app will be taking away from people who are making a living from it.
In today’s world, it is already hard enough to make a good living because of inflation. Many people need to have multiple sources of income. Small businesses also are hard enough to maintain, but TikTok helped expand small businesses and keep them open. An article by Tatyana Parham says, “By incorporating TikTok into your small business’s marketing strategy, you can solidify brand recognition and messaging, highlight product and service offerings, and connect with a growing and influential audience that has the potential to become loyal and lifelong customers.” This article talks more about how TikTok improved small businesses, but this quote stuck out to me because it emphasizes the importance of business growth. With the growth of the small businesses, TikTok raised enough money for them to create more products and some were able to even open storefronts instead of working from their houses because of the expansion.
Overall, TikTok helped promote small businesses instead of corporate America. Small businesses, just like TikTok, is someone’s way of making a living. It is their way of supporting themselves and their family just like any other job is. Taking away TikTok would be taking away the platform they use to make money. It would cause people to lose immense amounts of money and possibly their assets from the hit they take from losing the platform. Eliminating TikTok would affect more than just small businesses, many will take a large hit if the app gets banned.
