Swipe, Scroll and Say Goodbye? 

At a local Walgreens, a few days before Jan. 19, two store clerks discuss their social media habits. One remarks on the difficulty of understanding other users while using Red Note, a Chinese social media app with short-form content, with majoritively Chinese-speaking users.

The other clerk claims that they’ve returned to Instagram, namely, Instagram reels, to get their short-form content fix. 

In the days leading up to Jan. 19, influencers and content creators confess their biggest secrets. Fitness influencers admit they don’t actually follow the workouts they post, food creators reveal they don’t enjoy the dishes they prepare and makeup gurus share that they don’t use the products they promote. 

One day prior to Jan. 19, children across America cry over the eventual loss of their favorite short-form social media app. 

What’s causing this nationwide hysteria? TikTok. A national ban on the app went into effect the evening of Jan. 18, preventing millions of Tik-Tok users across the United States from watching or posting content on the Chinese-owned platform. This came after a unanimous Supreme Court decision was made two days prior, ruling that the app’s prevalence in the United States posed a risk to national security. 

What followed was entirely unanticipated. As millions of users, content creators and businesses lamented over the platform’s dissemination, it revived approximately 12 hours later. 

A ban still looms, however. On Jan. 20, Inauguration Day, President Trump signed an executive order that directed the attorney general to hold off on enforcing the ban for 75 days. If an American company makes a deal with China and buys all or part of TikTok, there may be a future for the app in the United States. If, however, China is still in control of the algorithm and data-sharing features of TikTok after the extension, a national ban on the app will likely proceed. 

Frederick Klug, an adjunct communication professor for Hope, emphasizes the consequences of a potential TikTok ban. “For a lot of people, it’s going to be the first time that they potentially have a platform they use disappear,” he said.

“With any social media platform, there are people who started businesses on the platforms by creating the content and getting sponsorships and deals,” Klug said. “When a platform goes away, that can totally change.” This is part of the reason the TikTok ban is causing such an emotional reaction. 

“With TikTok becoming popular during Covid in 2020, these folks really found a following and community and created businesses, and if they didn’t diversify the platforms they’re on, they could be in a world of hurt,” Klug said. The same can be said for regular users. TikTok created a new way of storytelling that fostered connection among its wide variety of users. 

“People really love TikTok,” he remarked. “With it potentially going away, it could be a whole part of people’s identity going away, too.” Aside from the platform itself, the U.S.-based creators’ videos will be inaccessible in the United States too. 

Where will TikTok users flock if the U.S. bans the app? It’s hard to say. “People who go to TikTok aren’t going to Instagram; they’re not going to Facebook; they’re not using Twitter,” Klug said. “Maybe there’s another app out there, but it’s hard to predict where people will go.” While some Hope students report using Instagram reels, they agree that it is not the same as TikTok and would not entirely substitute for the app’s disappearance. 

One of the reasons people treasure TikTok is because of its algorithm. Klug likened it to having mind-reading abilities; it never fails to show users what type of content they want to see. However, indulging in TikTok’s algorithmic magic comes with a price: the users’ time. 

“It can suck people in,” Klug said. “For the history of humans, we’ve always compared ourselves to other people. Social media allows you to do that everywhere, in all hours of the day, with people you don’t know, and with people who share a specific niche interest that you do.” For kids and teens, this is especially worrisome. 

“If TikTok were to get banned, I do think it would help mental health because it’s one of the most addictive platforms that’s been created,” he said. Yet, for other users, the benefit of the community the app has created outweighs the negative effects of its addictive nature. “I think it’s a larger discussion,” Klug said. 

“TikTok has highlighted a lot of issues related to the internet that we’ve been trying to figure out for 20 years,” he said. One of these issues is data privacy. This is one reason law-makers have established the ban – China has access to millions of US citizens’ data. 

“It’s almost to the point now where people hear about data leaks and it’s no big deal because it happens all the time,” Klug said. “I think as a culture and society we still have to reckon with that.” Today, everyone has a digital footprint. From a young age, students learn that ‘the internet is forever.’

The principle of permanence in the digital space may be proven false if TikTok is banned. 

“Even though we feel like this information is going to be on the internet forever, it can also go away within a second,” Klug said. He addressed the misconception surrounding ownership in the digital world. “We often think about when we use a service like TikTok or Instagram that it’s our service. . . but it’s not.” He compared it to paying rent. 

A printed essay is owned by the person who wrote it, but a TikTok video isn’t owned by the person who made it and posted it– it’s owned by the platform. Instagram, Meta and YouTube work in the same way. “We individually don’t own these platforms,” Klug reinforced. Instead, they’re giving us a place to post our content and we’re paying rent to do so. 

Because these social media platforms are privately owned, they’re not entitled to protect our First Amendment rights. It’s not the same as going on a street corner or privately publishing your own thoughts. “What does the First Amendment look like in the digital space?” Klug asked. It’s hard to answer; there isn’t much legal guidance on this issue. “There’s been a desire and need to have some type of laws and regulations for the internet because so much of our lives are on it.” 

The Tik-Tok ban outlines just how unpredictable the digital world can be. “If students are thinking about getting into the world of content creation or the digital world, don’t put your eggs in one basket,” Klug said, “because you never know what can happen.”

(Featured image source: Getty images)