History has a way of repeating itself, just as TikTok might meet the same fate as the content-creating app Vine, which shut down in January 2017. Earlier this month the country started to panic as the government announced that TikTok would officially be banned starting January 19th in the US which caused an uproar with its users.
According to CBS News, the government wanted the app banned because they feared the country’s national security and users’ privacy would be exposed. The ban was originally brought up in 2020 when the company ByteDance, which owns the app, refused to sell the platform’s United States operation to the government. It wasn’t until the beginning of this year that the ban was implemented.
When the news became more frequent its U.S. users started to panic, mainly in the Gen Z community because it was the first time they had experienced something like this, unlike Millennials who had watched the app Vine shut down back in 2017 causing a sense of deju vu for most.
On January 18th the U.S. community accepted the platform’s fate and began to look back on its history. Tiktok was originally called Musical.ly when it first launched and its transformation into TikTok. Content creators had started to say farewell and address the controversy surrounding them. By 10:30 pm the app had completely stopped working for users, just hours before the ban was supposed to take effect on January 19th.
“The ban was unnecessary,” Precious Silver (10) said. “I was crashing out when the app got banned. It happened when I was scrolling on the app and I was furious since it happened earlier than it was supposed to.”
Silver said that she always knew the app would get unbanned which ended up happening 12 hours after the ban took place. She believes that the U.S. will try to ban the app again eventually, but until then she will keep enjoying the platform and its many features.
Kelvin Jones (11) has a different outlook on the ban. “I was on the phone with my friends when the app got banned. I had freaked out and was screaming about it to my mom,” Jones said.
Jones believes in the conspiracy theory that the TikTok ban was just a scheme to make Trump look like the good guy once he got re-elected into office which many people on the internet believe.
“It was propaganda,” Jones said. “The reason why I say that is because in 2020 Trump was the original person who wanted it banned but since he decided to run for office again he wanted to unban the app to make himself seem like a hero.”
Although Jones has a strong opinion on the topic he’s delighted that the app is back and doesn’t see it getting banned again anytime soon. Teens weren’t the only ones affected by the ban but so were teachers.
Take Michelle DeFosset for example, not only a math teacher but also the creator behind Hancock’s TikTok account.
“It broke my heart when I found out the app was banned,” DeFosset said. “But I knew it would be back.”
DeFosset had a backup plan if the app were to be banned. She was going to go to Instagram reels, which most people turned to. She can also see how people could believe the conspiracy theories about the app’s sudden ban and wouldn’t be surprised if some of them were true.
“I feel complete now that the app is back,” DeFosset said.
As the debate over TikTok’s future on whether it will face the same tragic end as Vine continues, one thing stays the same. People will always find a way to voice their opinions whether the government likes it or not and the fight for online secretaries is far from over in this digital era.
