Due to the company owning Tik-Tok's ties to China, the popular social media app is getting officially banned in the United States. This comes after many senate and congress hearings, which have failed to prove that Tik-Tok is not a national security.
ByteDance is a Chinese company that is responsible for the development of the app. Due to the country's laws, at any point in time, the government of China may request access to the user data. Since there are over 170 millions of Americans actively using it, there are reasonably some concerns that it might endanger the citizens of the US, while also being a direct threat to the country's safety and security.
Some critics don't agree with this reasoning, however, claiming that it is against free-speech to ban the app nationwide, and that it is censorship. They see Tik-Tok as another form of way that political messages and inspiring videos might reach more people all over the world.
The app is also blamed for endangering children and having negative effects on them, such as directly affecting (and shortening) their attention spans. Supporters of the ban also criticise that the content shared and targeted to children is not exactly smart.
By the Supreme Court's decision, the app would get banned on 19th of January 2025, unless the app gets sold to a US-based company, but considering today's date (17.01) such event is unlikely, though there are several buyers interested. Some people are hoping that Donald Trump might outlaw this decision as he spoke positively of the app in the past on a few occassions. If not, Tik-Tok will get banned and removed from AppStore and GooglePlay, giving users no option to download and/or update the app in the US.
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