TikTok is one of the most popular apps right now for people of all ages, but maybe not for much longer.
Recently, the House of Representatives passed a bill that could ban TikTok from users in the United States. This bill has to be passed in the Senate and then brought to the president for him to sign for it to be in effect.
President Biden himself said that he would sign the bill if it came across his desk, but The Senate is in no rush to vote on this bill. Therefore, if a different president is elected to office, like President Donald Trump, he said he will most likely not sign the bill.
This poses the question of whether TikTok should be banned. For clarifying purposes, an article by CNN states “The bill would prohibit TikTok from US app stores unless the social media platform–used by roughly 170 million Americans—is spun off from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.”
There is no confirmed answer on whether TikTok will be officially banned but there is a good possibility.
Personally, I am 50-50 on this TikTok ban. I spend way too much time on TikTok so for the sake of prioritizing my time on more important or productive tasks, maybe the ban is a good idea.
That being said, I love TikTok. It is a fun app with diverse content that can be enjoyable for anyone of any age. I find it easy to be aware of a lot of things going on in the world when being on TikTok because I am on it so often.
I am not saying that TikTok is the most reliable way to get your news and information but it allows people to get a certain amount of base information. People are then able to go to more trustworthy news sites to research more about a topic or event.
TikTok is also a great way for people to not only be caught up on the latest trends or influencers but also allows people to find others that they have stuff in common with or people that they relate to.
For me, one of my favorite people that I follow on TikTok is Alix Earle. She is a freshly graduated college student who shares her very exciting and interesting life on social media. I would have never discovered her or enjoyed her content as much if I wasn’t on TikTok. Similarly, she would not be as popular as she is without TikTok.
I understand that many people may think TikTok is bad, but there are many good aspects of it as well. A lot of the good aspects are people posting about awareness for certain diseases or health conditions or posting awareness for things happening in the news.
For instance TikTok creator and newly published author, Eli Rallo posts often about the awareness of Ménière’s disease. Rallo’s mother was diagnosed with Ménière’s and ever since Rallo has been an advocate. Not only does Rallo serve as an advocate for the autoimmune disease, she also actively seeks out help from her followers and asks for resources and doctor recommendations to help her mother.
TikTok is a community of people and it can be a good community for many. TikTok is also a platform where many people find their careers. Influencers are taking the world by storm and a lot of their fame and popularity is accredited to TikTok.
That being said, there are many other ways to gain fame and popularity along with finding a career. TikTok being banned would not be the end of the world, but it would be sad in ways because this is a creative outlet for many people all over the world—not just in the US.
I would prefer TikTok not to be banned in the US because I genuinely enjoy using the app and think it is a very unique form of social media with lots of different opportunities to offer for the people of the United States.
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