Current:Home > BackDon't use TikTok? Here's what to know about the popular app and its potential ban in US-LoTradeCoin
Don't use TikTok? Here's what to know about the popular app and its potential ban in US
View Date:2024-12-24 07:47:35
Time’s up for TikTok?
President Biden signed into law a bill that could lead to a nationwide ban of the app. The legislation, passed in recent days by Congress, gives TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance up to a year to sell its U.S. operations or face a ban. Lawmakers cited national security concerns.
The popular app is used by 170 million Americans, many of them younger. More than half of TikTok's users (51.8%) are aged 24 or under and 87.4% of its users are under the age of 45, according to Business of Apps.
The app, which lets you post videos, definitely skews younger. "TikTok is like the center of the internet for young people. It's where they go to be entertained, keep up with news, and discover new brands or, increasingly, buy products," Emarketer principal analyst Jasmine Enberg told USA TODAY.
TikTok & Congress:Grandpa, please don't ban TikTok
But even older users, those 18-and-up spend 54 minutes a day on TikTok, she said. "There's really no equivalent to TikTok. It's a little bit everything – entertainment app, shopping app, social app – and it can be different for anyone who uses it."
What is TikTok?
What is it like to use TikTok? Sulafa Zidani, a scholar of global digital culture and an assistant professor of communication studies at Northwestern University, describes it this way: "Imagine zapping through your TV channels and watching a quick show with each zap, that is what the TikTok experience is like."
The teen-targeted app got its beginnings with another app founded in Shanghai called Musical.ly, which launched in 2014, and started as a place to post amateur music videos including lip-syncing of popular songs.
Bytedance bought that app in 2017 and, in China, combined it with its Douyin video app. It subsequently launched an international version of the revamped app, which it called TikTok.
As TikTok's audience grew to surpass 1.5 billion users, the app's versatility has grown. There's still plenty of dancing and lip-syncing. Here's an example of a short TikTok video with lip-syncing and dancing.
The smartphone app "allows people to shoot, edit, and add effects to videos all in one app making it very easy to create videos and even responses to videos (a feature known as “stitch”)," Zidani told USA TODAY in an email exchange.
"It became popular especially for short form videos including anything from dance tutorial or silly pet behavior to educational content about history and current event explainers," she said.
TikTok:They talked makeup and video games on the app. But a proposed ban awoke influencer giants
As you use the app and watch videos, the app gets to get to know the kind of content you like and will "suggest more of that content to … so (you) spend more time on the app," Zidani said.
You can use TikTok on Android and iOS devices, and once you sign up on desktop, too. You must supply an email and phone number to set up your account.
Who is on TikTok?
Like other social media platforms, TikTok has plenty of celebrities such as Selena Gomez, Billie Eilish, The Rock, Lizzo, Taylor Swift and Will Smith.
There's also influencers – many of whom are paid to promote products in their videos – other online creators, and big brands. For instance, McDonald's, Taco Bell and Kraft Mac And Cheese all have accounts.
Brands have engaged influencers as the platform's importance skyrocketed. Here you can watch an entry from TikTok food critic Keith Lee in which he discusses a promotion and philanthropic deal with Pizza Hut.
There's also millions of normal folks posting videos – for example, some point out deals they find at Costco and other retailers.
Videos created for TikTok can be posted on other sites including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter.
Why could TikTok be banned?
Potential national security risks posed by TikTok have been a concern of legislators for several years. For instance, the issue was raised when the U.S. Army began recruiting on the platform in 2019.
In November 2022, FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress that he was “extremely concerned” the Chinese government could weaponize the data collected through TikTok.
TikTok says it has never been asked to provide U.S. user data to the Chinese government and wouldn’t if asked.
Bytedance promises to challenge the new law and users could challenge it, too. In the meantime, some big tech suitors may start circling around TikTok intent on acquiring the app.
For TikTok, the clock is ticking.
Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mikegsnider.
What's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day
veryGood! (8876)
Related
- Jennifer Hudson, Kylie Minogue and Billy Porter to perform at Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade
- Inquiry into New Zealand’s worst mass shooting will examine response times of police and medics
- Michigan woman becomes first grand prize winner of state's Halloween-themed instant game
- Extremists with ties to the Islamic State group kill at least 26 people in eastern Congo
- 'He's driving the bus': Jim Harbaugh effect paying dividends for Justin Herbert, Chargers
- US suspending most foreign aid to Gabon after formal coup designation
- Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce seal their apparent romance with a kiss (on the cheek)
- Miners from a rival union hold hundreds of colleagues underground at a gold mine in South Africa
- 2 dead in explosion at Kentucky factory that also damaged surrounding neighborhood
- Two ships have collided off the coast of Germany and several people are missing
Ranking
- College football top five gets overhaul as Georgia, Miami both tumble in US LBM Coaches Poll
- Rebecca Loos Claims She Caught David Beckham in Bed With a Model Amid Their Alleged Affair
- West Texas county bans travel on its roads to help someone seeking an abortion
- Netflix's 'Get Gotti' revisits notorious mob boss' celebrity, takedown of 'Teflon Don'
- One person is dead after a shooting at Tuskegee University
- Bowl projections: Is College Football Playoff chaos ahead with six major unbeatens left?
- When does 'The Crown' Season 6 come out on Netflix? Release date, cast, teaser trailer
- NFL power rankings Week 8: How far do 49ers, Lions fall after latest stumbles?
Recommendation
-
Gossip Girl Actress Chanel Banks Reported Missing After Vanishing in California
-
Hailey Bieber Reveals Why She and Justin Bieber Rarely Coordinate Their Outfits
-
'An udderly good job': Deputies help locals chase, capture runaway cow in Colorado neighborhood
-
'Let Us Descend' follows a slave on a painful journey — finding some hope on the way
-
Georgia lawmaker proposes new gun safety policies after school shooting
-
4th defendant takes plea deal in Georgia election interference case
-
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce seal their apparent romance with a kiss (on the cheek)
-
Suspect killed after confrontation with deputies in Nebraska