Free Speech or National Security Hazard? The Tiktok Debate
Tiktok entered the social media scene in 2017, when it merged with Musical.ly to become a video-sharing app in which users could post about virtually anything. Since then, it has created thousands of music, fashion, and dance trends, solidifying itself within the cultural bounds of the late 2010’s and early 2020’s. Of its 1.04 billion users, 170 million are American—approximately 50.75% of the U.S. population. It comes as no surprise, then, that the proposal to ban the mega-popular app created quite a bit of backlash despite also garnering bipartisan support.
Concerns surrounding Tiktok initially emerged in 2019, when the app was charged with violating U.S. child-privacy laws, ending in a $5.7 million fine. At the time, apprehension was more so derived from the security of personal information on Tiktok; as of now, however, it has evolved into fears of how that information is used, especially when regarding foreign interference.
“The CCP’s laws require Chinese companies like ByteDance”—the company that owns Tiktok—“to spy on their behalf. That means any Chinese company must grant the CCP access and manipulation capabilities as a design feature,” stated U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers.
With China being a valiant competitor to the U.S., tensions were bound to be high when Tiktok’s popularity skyrocketed with American users. Legislators worry about ByteDance potentially using the platform to promote CCP propaganda, interfere with U.S. elections, and collect information about U.S leaders and the military. This wary sentiment led to some services banning the app on military-owned phones in December of 2019; later, in February 2023, Tiktok was deleted from all government-issued mobile devices.
The first proposal to ban Tiktok on a national level was made by current president Donald Trump in 2020, as a result of China’s “mishandling” of the COVID-19 epidemic. Despite his contradictory stance as of 2025, his opposition to the app and its company reigned fierce; an opposition that, in April of 2024, was shared by former president Biden. The Tiktok “ban or sell” bill — demanding that Tiktok either be banned on a national level or be sold to an American company — quickly passed through both the House and Senate, eventually gaining its presidential signature. This did not deter Tiktok and ByteDance, however. In May 2024, as a response to the bill, they sued the U.S. government, citing the First Amendment in defense.
Undeniably, the value placed upon freedom of speech in America is overwhelmingly prominent. This was a talking point used by many who found the ban proposal to be blatant censorship.
“All we might be left with at the end of the day is a Supreme Court opinion that weakens First Amendment freedoms on the internet,” stated Seth Stern, director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation. Tiktok has notoriously been a platform in which ordinary users are able to build a platform over a short period of time; many such have utilized this platform to voice their opinions. From influencers to presidential candidates (including Donald Trump), the app allows these people to connect with audiences that both share and oppose their opinions to spread news and information. Would it, then, be a threat to the media and democracy as a whole to ban it?
Even after negotiations with Trump, the app’s future is still cloudy, with staunch defenders on either side. Following a brief shutdown on January 19th, many are still wary due to the ambiguity of the situation; with the “ban or sell” bill still up in the air, Tiktok’s legality rests in the hands of the future.
Donald Trump’s Tiktok Flip-Flop
A little over four years ago during his first term, President Trump called for TikTok to be banned, mentioning in a July 2020 television interview that his administration was considering a ban due to China’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just a few days later aboard Air Force One, he remarked that “As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States.” And on Facebook and Instagram, his campaign released ads accusing TikTok of “spying” on users, with the message, “Do you think we should ban TikTok? Sign the petition NOW!” These ads have since been deleted.
On August 6, 2020, Trump signed Executive Order 13942: the foundation of the “ban or sell” approach to TikTok that the U.S. government continues to pursue today. In the order, he argued that TikTok’s data collection practices risked the Chinese Communist Party—or CCP—accessing Americans’ personal or proprietary information, increasing the threat of “blackmail and corporate espionage,” and constituting a threat to national security. The order mandated that TikTok either be banned within 45 days or sold to an American company. Following this, companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, and Walmart lined up offers to purchase the app, but Trump’s plan never came to fruition. Just two months after he issued this executive order, federal courts struck it down as unconstitutional. And after Trump lost the 2020 election, his successor Joe Biden revoked the ban in 2021.
It’s clear that Trump had no love for TikTok back in 2020. But it is just as clear that in 2024, his views on the issue dramatically changed. In March 2024, he spoke out against bipartisan-backed legislation in Congress that aimed to do the same thing he tried in 2020—have TikTok banned or sold to an American company. He defended this viewpoint in subsequent social media posts and television appearances, citing concerns with freedom of speech, helping Meta, and his own campaign strategy.
Indeed, Trump has leaned into TikTok—potentially due to the encouragement of his son, Barron—and has used the app to appeal to young voters. He commented in March that young people would “go crazy” without TikTok, created an account in June, and in September, boasted about his large following, calling himself a “big star” on the app. He furthered, “For all those that want to save Tik Tok in America, vote for Trump!”
Since winning the 2024 election, he has taken action to counter the “ban or sell” bill. Trump met with TikTok executives on December 16, 2024, at his residence at Mar-a-Lago. A few days later, he filed a brief with the Supreme Court, asking them to temporarily block the January 19th deadline set by the legislation. The day of the ban deadline, TikTok itself released a message on its app to users, saying, “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!” The next day—Trump’s inauguration—Trump issued an executive order to “save TikTok,” prompting another message from the app, which said, “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”
So, how did a man so vehemently against TikTok and the threat of Chinese espionage flip-flop so drastically? One can only speculate, but three main potential motives stand out. The first is simply garnering public approval. Following his initial attempt to ban TikTok, Trump lost the 2020 election. Since then, his stance on the issue has reflected public opinion.
In 2023, for instance, about 50% of American adults supported a ban. However, by 2024, this number dropped to 32%. It was around this time that his public stance also changed—mirroring the sentiment of the American people. This was not a lone incident in his campaign, either. Although consistently inconsistent on the issue of abortion, Trump went from an overall pro-life stance in his first term to a more moderate position in his 2024 run, attempting to appeal to women and more moderate voters. And despite previously denouncing Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook as an “enemy of the people,” Trump has flip-flopped on that too, since allying with Zuckerberg and a number of other tech executives. It is highly possible that he simply did not have any real skin in the game with regards to a TikTok ban, and is taking whichever side is more advantageous to him and his support.
This leads to potential motive two—support from a specific group of people: young voters. As mentioned before, Trump has a large following (14.8+ million followers) on TikTok. And when it comes to the app’s popularity, it is clear that young people make up the majority of its users. Perhaps Trump’s campaign reasoned that portraying himself as the “savior” of TikTok would bring over voters from that demographic group. This certainly adds up—especially with TikTok itself displaying messages thanking him by name after the ban was temporarily blocked—and seems to have been successful.
Although the Republican Party generally receives much less support from young voters, there was a major realignment this past election cycle. Obviously, this cannot be attributed entirely to his TikTok campaign promises, but Trump’s usage of the app to connect with young people in a way other Republican lawmakers have failed to do, along with his emphasis on “saving TikTok” certainly contributed to the unexpected support he received from that demographic.
The last motive Trump could have had in switching up is financial. In March 2024, Trump met with major Republican donor Jeff Yass, who owns an approximately 7% share—worth $21 billion—of Bytedance, the company that owns TikTok. Other reports claimed that Yass had a $33 billion stake in TikTok, and had been threatening to pull support from Republican lawmakers backing the bipartisan bill to ban the app. Yass had also helped found the Susquehanna International Group, a trading firm and major supporter of lobbying group Club for Growth, which hired former Trump senior counselor Kellyanne Conway to lobby for TikTok in Congress. Surprisingly, this speculation came from Trump’s own supporters, including his former advisor Steve Bannon. In a social media post, Bannon suggested that Trump was paid off by Yass to oppose the ban, remarking, “Simple: Yass Coin.” Trump himself has denied this, claiming that he and Yass did not discuss TikTok at all in their meeting, and that he was unaware of Yass’ connection to the company.
Post-Tiktok Ban
With over 135.79 TikTok users, the United States takes the crown for the most TikTok users. Now with the impending TikTok ban, users—ranging from regular users to company owners—are faced with a major challenge: what are they going to do now?
Many influencers and users say they will go to Instagram Reels, or another platform named Lemon8 to continue their usage of similar types of media. But users have reported unhappiness with those respective platforms, claiming that “with each new update, we grow increasingly dissatisfied.” Furthermore, because Instagram is part of Meta, users have shown opposition to using the platform that could be partly responsible for the banning of the original app: TikTok. This is why many have decided to use a more niche app: RedNote.
Originally known as XiaoHongShu (小红书), past users of TikTok have discovered themselves immersed in a new foreign app. At first, the app did not have any English features; even the app’s name, as shown in the App Store, was not in English. Many users claim that RedNote “feels like Pinterest, Tiktok, and Instagram all into one.” American users even called themselves “TikTok refugees” on RedNote as they explore the new realm of the social media platform.
What shocked many users was the sheer vastness of the new digital world they were exposed to. Even though RedNote may seem foreign and unfamiliar to new users, many people from Asia use RedNote as their main source of social media, keeping up with current trends and living their life day by day. With so many trends originating from mainland China, many American users have been pleasantly shocked by what they are seeing on RedNote, even making jokes with people across the globe. For instance, users have been exchanging cat photos as an entry fee for the “TikTok refugees.” Additionally, people from both nations are exchanging stories on their respective living and working conditions, sharing about their daily life, and connecting with more people.
Americans even took initiative to start to learn and immerse themselves into this new world. Duolingo, a language learning app, reported a 216% increase in Mandarin learners, showing the extent of preparation Americans were willing to take in the wake of the TikTok ban. On January 16, 2025, two days before the reported TikTok ban, there were 3 million new downloads of RedNote, which made RedNote the most-downloaded app in the App Store for many days.
With the exposure to new cultures and customs, people from both nations are connecting and bonding over shared experiences, spreading their respective cultures, traditions, and trends. Adults are planning their future vacations in China, Chinese students are asking American students for help on their English homework, American students are doing the same for their math homework, doctors are comparing their working conditions, and more. People are feeling surprised, utterly shocked, and appreciative of this new movement. And ironically, despite the ban aiming to strengthen the barrier between the American and Chinese people, it achieved the opposite effect—pushing Americans to an actually Chinese-owned social media app and facilitating significant cultural exchange between the citizens of each country.
Final Thoughts
TikTok’s future is still up in the air, caught in the crossroads of national security interests, free speech, and the whims of the new Trump administration. What is certain is that any long-term resolution to the issue will have far-reaching consequences—consequences that have already begun to unfold. Whether the ban will be implemented in the future or not, the proposal itself marks a turning page in American legislation. Will fears for national security supposedly overshadow democracy and free speech? Or does the motive of protecting citizens ultimately lead to more division? What new developments and trends will emerge from such events? With everything still developing and changing, it’s undeniable that either new things will emerge or current things will be lost.
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