While Canada’s recent order won’t have much of an impact on the average TikToker, regulatory crackdowns on the app are taking place on home soil, with the US Government planning to ban the app for regular users on January 19, 2025.
Similarly to Canada, the US is concerned about TikTok’s potential risks to national security and has already banned the app from appearing on Government devices. The app has been under investigation for years, but the inquiry reached a fever pitch this July when the US Justice Department issued a warning about the company sending “significant amounts” of US personal data back to the Chinese government.
Specifically, the US agency accused the ByteDance-owned app of using internal tools to scrape the data of millions of US citizens, on issues ranging from gun control and abortion to voting intention. The US filing also suggests TikTok could be guilty of censoring content based on “the user’s use of certain words”.
If you’re currently using the app to create content, or doom scroll through entertaining and irreverent content, there is good news. The ban will only take place if TikTok won’t find a US company to store national data, and if the the company doesn’t guarantee no user data is being sent back to China.
The US government can also extend the deadline by up to 90 days if it believes progress is being made with the sale, which could push back its potential ban date to April of next year. However, it’s worth noting that the TikTok ban was spearheaded by the Democrats, and could well be overturned once the Republicans take office in the new year.
Ultimately, the ball remains in TikTok’s court, but it’s uncertain whether the company will be willing to make the changes necessary to remain in the country. While a blanket ban on the app will probably positively impact the nation’s screen time, it will also be a huge disappointment to the 120.5 million active US users who rely on the app for community, recommendations, and light-hearted escapism.
