TikTok may soon be unavailable in the United States. The app may be banned by President Joe Biden. Concerns have been raised about the app since it originated in China, but now two US senators are already working on a bill to allow the president to ban the video app.
TikTok ban
The bill goes further than just TikTok. The idea is that the US president will soon be able to ban technology from abroad. An extremely far-reaching law, although we have already seen in recent years that the United States can be very creative in making foreign technology impossible. For example, American companies have long been prohibited from doing business with Huawei, so that company – which certainly did not make bad smartphones – could no longer rely on Android and Google services. Something that has been disastrous for the smartphone branch of the company.
TikTok has launched a massive charm offensive against the United States after it was forced to admit that its employees had access to the information of users in the US (and in Europe). It then promised to open a special office where employees selected by the US would work on the data within TikTok, but that is probably of no use to the country. It probably just wants to get rid of Bytedance, TikTok’s parent company. TikTok is powerful and gaining ground that previously belonged to American social media such as Twitter and Instagram. The fact that strange ‘weather balloons’ have also been released by China in the US ensures that the US government is on edge.
Dutch objections
Not everyone in the Netherlands is on TikTok either. For example, the ChristenUnie would rather get rid of the app in order to protect children. With this app (which is already accessible by downloading only, no account is required), children get access to all kinds of films that are not all equally intended for their young eyes. So it is not so much the origin of the app that plays a role, but more what the app does. TikTok does try to make it clear in the Netherlands how it protects children, as we wrote last year in our article about how TikTok wants to be a kind of Volvo of social media and video apps.
In the United States, they therefore see very different problems due to the immensely popular app. Something that TikTok itself has already responded to. “A US ban on TikTok will halt the spread of American culture to billions of people around the world.” Although we are still fully fed American culture by games, films and American companies, it is true that TikTok reaches a huge number of people with its major trends. Trends that also often originate in the United States.
Enough alternatives
If the app can indeed count on a ban in the US, this may also affect your TikTok use. After all, it means that many artists and influencers from that country will no longer upload videos on TikTok. Although that is not fun and TikTok has really made a difference in social media in recent years, we now of course have Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, on which you can post the exact same content as you would post on TikTok. It is true that there may be a loss of income for those influencers and that can affect the budgets they have to keep making videos. But Americans should first get that ban in place, if that’s really what the country wants. For the time being, we really don’t see anything like this happening in the Netherlands, so we keep swiping on.
Laura Jenny
When she’s not tapping, she’s traveling around the wonderful world of entertainment or some cool place in the real world. Mario is the man of her life,…
