TikTok was first created in September of 2016 but became popular around October 2018. As of January of 2024, the app has 1.9 billion active users hoping to gain more which makes it top 10 of most used social media. The app was created by Zhang Yiming, a Chinese internet entrepreneur followed along with CEO Shou Zi Chews. While TikTok is a Chinese app, this has brought the US attention even facing the danger of being banned in the United States as being considered a threat to US Secuity.

As a user of the of the app I believe TikTok should not be banned.

At first TikTok was just an app for posting videos of lip syncing, but over time the app began to change. Now TikTok has become a second home for education whether it’s for subjects not taught in a school curriculum or things less known to people.

Kahlil Greene, is known on TikTok as a Gen Z Historian. In 2021, while he was a senior at Yale University, Greene posted several videos around “the intense amount of whitewashing that happens” during Martin Luther King Jr. Day, highlighting quotes from the civil rights leader that reflected his radical views on race and class. Seeing an enthusiastic response, Greene launched a series called “hidden history,” covering lesser-known moments in the nation’s past. Greene has since amassed more than 600,000 TikTok followers, while his ‘hidden history’ videos, as well as his other educational content around current events and popular culture, routinely rack up tens of thousands of views each.”

Besides that, TikTok has also given many people a good start to different careers.  For example, many artists who blew up on TikTok were because many of their songs had dances created to them or content creators posting videos of them lip syncing. “There wasn’t a more romantic song on TikTok this year than “Está Dañada.” Created by Cornejo, a teenage Mexican American singer-songwriter. The dreamy song was used by more than a million people to post pictures of themselves or their significant others. “All the trends on TikTok have really helped build up my music,” Cornejo told Billboard last month. “Está Dañada” marked only the second time a Regional Mexican hit has ever landed on the Billboard Hot 100.”

TikTok has become is news outlet for younger generations. Nowadays many children don’t watch the news or in general don’t watch TV.  Everything is on phones. “TikTok is also increasingly being used for searches, with Google reporting earlier this year that, by its estimates, around 40% of young people now turn to TikTok or Instagram to search for, say, restaurant recommendations.  The study shows that 40% of consumers use TikTok for information, with the app being especially popular among younger generations, as 64% of Gen Z and 49% of millennials do so. This highlights TikTok’s importance for businesses targeting these demographics.”

Although many people believe that TikTok should be banned because it’s a threat the US security. Due to the fact the TikTok is a Chinese company the Chinese law mandates sharing information with the Chinese government party (CPS) including private user data. “The US government cannot ignore TikTok as a potential national security threat, even if efforts to crack down on the company alienate a generation of future voters. Republicans and Democrats agreed this is a threat. “We must deal with it before it’s too late,” stated US Representative Mike Gallagher (R).

Although this is true, we can’t forget that there are other apps that share private data users with others that have not been called out. “Every American company does the same thing as TikTok.” The Washington Post and Pellemon Lin, researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, both examined TikTok independently and concluded that TikTok “does not appear to collect any more data than your typical mainstream social network.” In fact, Facebook and Google both collect more personal data from users than TikTok.

In short, TikTok shouldn’t be banned, it has become an app the has helped and benefited today’s generation generally in helping people learn, create their career, and a place to help younger generation be informed about what is happening around the world. In all the banning of TikTok is part of freedom of speech and allowing the government to ban it is one step closer to taking away our freedom of speech.