Goodbye, TikTok? Ban, unban raises public suspicion

Jack Glagola, News Editor

The social media app TikTok went offline on Jan. 19 ahead of a ban the Supreme Court upheld on Jan. 17. The app came back online 14 hours later after President Donald Trump promised to give their parent company 90 days to sell the app to an American company or face the ban, according to CNN.

The app, which is used by over one third of American adults, according to Pew Research, is owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance. This has caused scrutiny about TikTok’s alleged ability to collect Americans’ data and give it to the Chinese government, according to Reuters.

VCU students had mixed feelings about the ban. Some acknowledged the government had legitimate reasons for it, but disliked the prospect of losing a platform for organization and news.

Sophia Mercado, a first-year psychology student, has used TikTok since sixth grade when it was known as Musical.ly. She said she was initially skeptical about the ban because she heard it would be banned for several years.

“I didn’t really think much of it until this year, I got a little scared because it was going to the Supreme Court, so I started to download all of my videos,” Mercado said.

Mercado said she thought it was strange that TikTok thanked President Trump in a post on X.

“I thought it was a little weird that they were crediting him,” Mercado said. “It was almost like, ‘We have to depend on him to bring back this beloved social media app.’”

Mercado said she gets a lot of information from TikTok and knows many people depend on it for income.

“I know not to depend on it all the way, but there’s some stuff that I would have never known, or little hacks or just little easy quick things,” Mercado said.

Nav Yeroian, a first-year pre-nursing student, said she felt “very angry” about the ban at first.

“I knew that it wasn’t necessarily because of the data that was being leaked, but more so because we were getting too loud on there and they couldn’t censor us as much,” Yeroian said.

Yeroian said TikTok is a very “advocative” platform where people can speak up about political issues without fear of censorship from the government. When the app went down, she said she felt like it was an attempt at censorship.

“It also didn’t make sense because it’s something we’ve had around for so long — why is it an issue now, and why wasn’t it an issue when the app was first getting popular?” Yeroian said.

MacKenzie Hunt, a first-year interior design student, said she was suspicious of President Trump’s promise to bring the app back so soon after the ban.

“You didn’t feel like it was thought out and it was very sudden,” Hunt said. “They said, ‘We’re going to ban it earlier,’ and it never happened, and this time we’re like, ‘Is it actually going to happen?’ and then it did, but only for 14 hours.”

Hunt — like many other TikTok users after the ban — downloaded Xiaohongshu, known by its English name RedNote, a similar video-sharing app. She said she will keep it because TikTok may still be banned after 90 days.

“I don’t go on it a lot, but I started to talk on there and the people were so nice,” Hunt said. “I use it every now and then.”

Hunt said they were skeptical of claims that TikTok is a national security risk.

“I think it’s because they don’t like what’s being put out there, because even on the less conservative side of Instagram, it’s way different and you’re not getting as much information,” Hunt said. “It’s still censored.”

Tre Holley, a first-year art foundations student, said he did not think TikTok would actually be banned.

“I knew there was a chance it was going to be banned, but I did know that it would come back someday,” Holley said.

Holley said after the app went down, he “brushed it off” and went on Instagram.

“When I woke up, it was all back to normal,” Holley said.

Holley said the claims about security risks were “mostly solid.”

“They do have the right to be concerned about it, I just don’t think it’s right to target TikTok when there’s other sites that take our information as well,” Holley said.