Most UC Santa Barbara students know the feeling of scrolling through TikTok during the struggle to get out of bed and make it to your 8 a.m. section on time, only to realize that the 5-minute grace period you planned to give yourself turned into a 45-minute “rot.” Whether it be cooking recipes, funny pet videos or Luigi Mangione thirst trap edits, TikTok’s algorithm knows how to keep you hooked.
However, news of the looming nationwide TikTok ban concerned many of TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users. The nationwide ban was set to take place on Jan. 19 unless Tiktok’s Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, sold TikTok’s U.S. operations to a government-approved buyer.
The reason for the ban comes from the concern that the Chinese government can access sensitive data from TikTok’s users and fuel misinformation on the app. However, TikTok has long denied such claims. In an effort to postpone the ban, the case was brought to a U.S. Supreme Court hearing on Friday, Jan. 10. TikTok’s lawyers argued that the ban violates the First Amendment right to free speech against the federal government’s argument that ByteDance’s Chinese ownership makes the ban necessary for national security. On Friday, Jan. 17, the Supreme Court decided to uphold the law, determining that “divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary” and that the “challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights.”
However, according to the Atlantic Council, U.S. officials fear “that such data may be weaponized by Beijing, though no evidence of such activity has yet to be proven.” While TikTok admits the app does collect information on users if they give permission, such as user location, contacts and other social media accounts, TikTok’s data collection practices are similar to that of other social media apps. Mark Scott, senior resident fellow at the Democracy + Tech Initiative within the Atlantic Council Technology Programs, says a ban on TikTok does not make user data more private or secure because “personal information —- from people’s phone numbers and home addresses to internet activity to consumer purchasing history —- is already available commercially, via so-called domestic data brokers.”
Many UCSB students seem to agree with this perspective and have expressed a lack of concern for the user data that TikTok is collecting. Fourth-year sociology major Gracie Honoré explained the data collected by TikTok is the least of her concerns in comparison to her data that has already been leaked. Honoré pointed out the 2021 UC data breach: “We got that email that the UC System was hacked and everyone’s social security number and data was breached, so I just figured my data is already out there.”
Alongside the risk of releasing sensitive user data, ethical concerns are being raised over the misinformation that is being spread throughout the app. According to a 2022 research report conducted by NewsGuard analysts, when using sample searches on prominent news topics, almost 20% of videos on TikTok presented as search results contained false or misleading claims.
However, TikTok is not the only social media app susceptible to the spread of misinformation. On Tuesday, Jan. 7, Meta announced the decision to end its fact-checking program on social media apps Facebook, Instagram and Threads. Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement in a video explaining how Meta is taking the “opportunity to restore free expression” and claimed that fact checker systems have been “too politically biased.”
However, AP News revealed that many media experts believe the decision to remove the fact-checking program is removing an important resource for users. Dan Evon, a writer for fact-checking tool RumorGuard, said that “Fact-checkers provide a valuable service by adding important context to the viral claims that mislead and misinform millions of users on Meta.”
Even in the presence of data privacy and misinformation concerns, the fear of a loss of community built on the TikTok app following its closure is not to be undermined. Fourth-year sociology major Nina Myers exhibited the disappointment felt by many TikTok users when they heard of the upcoming shutdown because the “app connects citizens in ways that have never been seen before.”
Other students, however, seemed relieved to hear the news of the TikTok ban due to how highly addictive and time-consuming the app can be. One anonymous UCSB student said she was “excited to be forced to stop and get so much time back” because she would no longer be able to scroll endlessly on TikTok’s user interest-focused algorithm.
Whether you felt delighted or downhearted to hear of the looming TikTok ban, all U.S. users saw the app “go dark” this past weekend with a message from TikTok announcing their hope that after President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, the app would be reinstated. Despite leading the effort to ban TikTok during his first term as president, Trump posted a request on Truth Social Sunday morning to “not let TikTok stay dark” and announced he would issue an executive order on the day of his inauguration to postpone the ban, allowing for the time to “make a deal to protect our national security.”
For a treacherous 14-hour period, avid TikTok users were left to ponder what their next steps should be. Follow the millennials and succumb to Instagram Reels? Use this as an opportunity to lock into academics this quarter? Or maybe join the flock to RedNote? Luckily, TikTok was swiftly reinstated on Sunday, following the previous night’s temporary hiatus, allowing U.S. users to return to the scroll. What you choose to do with your re-established right to is ultimately “For You” to decide.
A version of this article appeared on p.9 of the Jan. 23, 2025 edition of the Daily Nexus.