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FISCHER – The clock keeps ticking for TikTok

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

Tick-tock, TikTok.

What a dramatic weekend the video platform has had.

For those in need of a refresher, for the last several years TikTok has been at the center of a national conversation about data gathering and influence. Particularly in regard to who is doing the gathering and influencing.

FISCHER - The clock keeps ticking for TikTok
Travis Fischer

The issue that TikTok’s critics in the government have is two-fold. The first is how much information collected by the app makes its way into the hands of the Chinese government. The app has been accused of collecting vastly more information on its users than could possibly be needed for its algorithm to recommend you funny videos.

The second is how much influence the Chinese government has over that algorithm, giving it no small measure of control over the distribution of information to 170 million Americans.

These issues culminated in the bi-partisan passing of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act back in March of 2024, which prohibits providing distribution or hosting services to applications controlled by a designated foreign adversary.

There are arguments to be made that the information collected by the apps we put on our phones and the ability of social media to manipulate the flow of information is a broader issue regardless of who owns the platform, but in this case the law is drawing the line at platforms with direct ties to a declared foreign adversary.

TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, are explicitly named in the law, making it clear that ByteDance can either sell TikTok to an American company or shut down entirely.

The bill passed through Congress with overwhelming support, was signed into law by President Biden, and, as of Friday, was upheld by the Supreme Court.

Still, going into the weekend, it’s been unclear what TikTok’s ultimate fate will be.

TikTok creators have been preparing for the worst, wisely diversifying their internet presence to other platforms just in case. Pretty much every creator I follow on TikTok that wasn’t already cross-posting on YouTube and Instagram is now. Some have even started shifting to traditional long-form content.

TikTok users, on the other hand, have gone on a nihilistic spiral, mass migrating to RedNote, a smaller but similar platform even more directly controlled by China, in a fit of petty defiance.

And if you think that’s being overly dramatic, that’s nothing compared to ByteDance’s own performative posturing over the weekend. Late Saturday evening ByteDance abruptly shut down not just TikTok, but several other unrelated applications it owns like the “Marvel Snap” virtual card game and video editing software CapCut.

In spite of the Biden Administration already punting on the issue of enforcement, ByteDance played up its self-imposed “ban” for about 12 hours before turning its services back on by its own accord.

By the time this column sees print, the newly inaugurated President Trump, who started this snowball back in 2020 with an executive order “Addressing the Threat Posed by TikTok,” will likely have issued a new executive order giving ByteDance a 90-day extension to sell TikTok before enforcement of the law happens.

Thus, the clock keeps ticking.

So get ready to do this all over again in April.

— Travis Fischer is a news writer for the Charles City Press and has one modestly successful TikTok video that he should probably put up on YouTube or something.

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