Perla Cortez EDINBURG – TikTok has been granted an extension to sell their U.S assets before facing a ban in the U.S., an issue the app’s been facing since congress accused TikTok of sharing user’s data to the Chinese government.
If TikTok fails to sell it’s U.S. assets, the results could be detrimental for many small businesses who use the app to advertise their services.
Andres Rayon, owner of Michael’s Burgers a local restaurant in San Juan, TX, said once he heard of the potential ban of TikTok, he started to worry about the future of his business.
“The app had a huge impact on my business,” Rayon said in Spanish. “Because of that I was able to get a lot of publicity for my business. If it was another way, I would not have the proper funding to pay advertisers or a company to give me that publicity.”
– The process of banning TikTok started in 2020 when Donald Trump proposed to congress the platform should be banned because of its risk to national security.
– TikTok then sued Trump’s administration and claimed the proposal lacked evidence to show the app was sending private user information to China.
– In 2023, TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, went to court to defend the company to prove that it was not feeding the Chinese government with user data.
– In 2024, the House of Representatives passed a bill, that was later signed by former president Joe Biden, which gave TikTok a deadline to sell itself or face consequences and be banned.
– TikTok then sued the U.S government and alleged it the law was unconstitutional. However, during court, congress it still found TikTok guilty. On Jan. 19 the court made it unlawful for any U.S company to provide services or any updates for TikTok.
Before the Jan. 19 ruling, TikTok shut down its services early on Jan. 18, only being down for less than a day before Trump spoke with Zi Chew promising to grant an extension, resulting in the app going back up.
Trump’s promise was made official when the president’s administration signed an executive order granting the extension to TikTok after he took office on Jan. 20.
However, the app remains off the Google Play store and the Apple store.
Bryant Sculos, a UTRGV political science lecturer III, said that if the Google Play store or the Apple store kept TikTok up for download, the companies would have to pay thousands of dollars in fines for every download.
Sculos, said because of the regulatory power that China has on ByteDance, the U.S. government misunderstood how they control the algorithm and accused the country of having access to users’ data.
Regulatory power is the amount of authority a country has over certain companies to either fit or change their laws or structure.
“They all basically collect data in the same way and use it for the same thing,” Sculos said. “Which is for advertising and selling data to other companies to develop their own marketing strategies.”
He said he has not seen any evidence, that the government has provided, that TikTok is a unique case for a ban.
Last May, content creators defended the application and sued the government for the attempt of the ban, as of this year the lawsuit has not been settled yet by the court.
KVAQ-TV interviewed UTRGV student for their perspective on the matter.
Lucinda Estrada, a psychology freshman, said although the U.S claims the app is a security concern, the aftermath would leave a negative impact on people.
“It’s a lot of people’s safe space, because they can be creative, they can be themselves and I think it’s a useful output for a lot of people and it is a job for people to get by,” Estrada said. “For it to be banned it would be a lot of hardships for people.”
Salma Carrion, a criminal justice sophomore, stated she understood the reason behind the banned but opposed of the solution.
“It could be a major cyber security threat,” Carrión said. “So, I do understand why America wants to put a pause to that, but I mean I feel like they should just work together a figure out a solution for that.”
For future updates on the TikTok ban visit utrgvtv.com
