Time runs out on TikTok

Ebony Caldwell

Reporter

Leslie Ortiz - Photographer

U.S. Congress is attempting to ban the social media platform known as TikTok. It’s a widely appreciated app among Gen Z people who are not so excited about the possible ban.

TikTok (formerly Musically) was founded in September 2016, and since then, the app’s users have grown significantly. Many Gen Z individuals have also grown with the app, using it as a primary time killer.

TikTok is owned by a tech company in China; because of this, the U.S. government has security concerns such as the app handling the data of the users leading to their pursuit to ban the platform overall, which has become a controversial topic recently. Many believe banning the app could be harmful.

“I feel like it will be both beneficial and harmful, cause like, its still freedom of speech so they should be able to keep it, but at the same time, it spreads negative things, especially about politics and stuff like that,” said Aiyanna Brown.

The app is fun, no doubt about it. It’s had many trends over the years that people have grown attached to that would be gone if TikTok were to get banned.

“I’d be kinda irritated if it got banned because I’ll wanna watch something like the Renegade but I wouldn’t be able to do that anymore,” said Alonzo Ware.

Not only has TikTok been a source to kill boredom for many genres of people, but the app has also been stated to be very informative for those people. A fast and direct way to gain information.

“I think banning TikTok is gonna be harmful because a lot of people actually learn from TikTok, like I’ve learned a lot of stuff from TikTok, like Spanish and fashion,” said Christina Epps.

Gen Z people have grown to be familiar with this app, so it can be understood that the possible absence of the app could be a little weird. They may not know exactly how to seek entertainment in other ways as the app is one of the main ways they seek amusement.

“I feel like it would be more boring for everyone, trends wouldn’t be able to be spread around as fast as it does on Tiktok, and also learning more information about things, could be harder on a different platform because people don’t really use other popular apps like Instagram anymore, it's not exactly the go-to app and Twitter. I feel like everything would be a little weird,” said Ariyah Harvey.

Though there are many beliefs that the platform has a high chance of being banned, there has yet to be a verdict. As of right now, people can just wait and see how things pan out.