Security or insecurity: The Truth of the TikTok Ban
Loud cries, the rumble of conversations, desperation flooding through texts — chaos had erupted all around. Concerned, we all asked around for some solution to the immense weight that had just been placed on our shoulders: one of the greatest tragedies of our generation— the TikTok ban. This great devastation lasted for a total of 12 hours, but our worlds were never the same. That day, we realized envy controlled our dear social media platform and the future of our endless stream of relatable, funny, random, interminable videos.
Gen Z is known by other generations to be the generation of children who were affected too deeply by the pandemic, as we were forced to learn how to connect virtually and thousands of miles away from loved ones and friends. As a result, applications like TikTok have been crucial for us, a way to connect with others and create movements. In fact, out of the 1 billion monthly active users that TikTok has, 1 out of 4 are under the age of 20, highlighting the centrality of it in our generation (Duarte 2025). Nonetheless, debates in the executive and legislative branches over the East's control of our media outlet have led to a shaky future and relationship with the application. From Trump deciding to ban it, Biden finally implementing it, Trump reversing it, and more, we’re struggling to keep up. The bans are said to protect us from TikTok possibly sharing user data with China. But with all this back and forth we are left to ask –is this all really about limiting China’s influence on us? The short answer is, if it were, we wouldn't be using TikTok right now. The real driver of the bans is envy—envy of the power of the East gaining control of the media, envy that Democrats would be the ones to enforce the TikTok ban, and envy that a generation can be so united. Trump is playing with fire as he lets envy guide his decisions about the future of our dear app.
Trump first felt TikTok’s power in 2020, when attitudes towards him started to shift and users mobilized. In 2020, Trump hosted a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and beforehand, continuously boasted about the one million Americans who registered to attend his rally. What he was unaware of, however, was that many of those tickets were purchased due to a movement started on TikTok (Nobles 2020). This movement consisted of purchasing tickets to his rallies and not showing up. This significantly decreased the number of attendees to less than 6,200 for the Tulsa event. Upon fear of appearing to have a lack of support Trump and his team blamed “radical protestors” and said media coverage of demonstrations had attempted “to frighten off the President’s supporters.”(Nobles 2020). That’s when he first learned the power of TikTok. That's where his envy started—when he realized that others controlled a platform with the power of mobilization.
Trump then proceeded to claim that our private data was controlled by China through the application, and thus, a ban was required for our safety. However, when Biden agreed and decided to ban the application, Trump suddenly decided to save it. So, what’s the truth? Is it or is it not controlled by China? As a part-American teenager in Singapore, the argument that China controlled TikTok always perplexed me. After all, the owner of the application was Singaporean, if that meant Singapore owned my data, which they already do living here, what’s the issue? A lot of students at our school felt this way. Especially after watching the Singaporean TikTok CEO get grilled by congress on whether or not because he is Asian he is a part of the Chinese Communist Party (Soo 2024). Nonetheless, China could indeed be accessing our data due possible agreements with the parent company of TikTok, ByteDance. TikTok in itself does not operate in China to avoid their security laws and control over user’s data and is inherently a Singaporean application. Despite that, it is structured under ByteDance which is a chinese company (He 2024). Thus, the current worries of the US government is that ByteDance could provide our data to the Chinese government (He 2024). Does that mean a ban is necessary to protect us from this possible data breach? I'll leave that to the experts.
However, we aren’t here to discuss the control of China over our private information, we’re here to discuss how, once Biden agreed with Trump to ban, suddenly Trump took on the role of savior. His timing was impeccable. He was envious of Biden, who would receive all the spotlight for saving our app, while he would remain in the shadows. Trump wanted to take the center spotlight using TikTok so much that he invited the CEO to his inauguration this past January. Not only that, but when the app was restored, users were greeted by a message stating: “Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”(Duffy and Goldman 2025). Trump was suddenly a hero.
Thus, we all remain here with a hidden truth. TikTok is controlled not by China, not by Trump, not by us, but by envy. Envy of politicians for their power, envy of the ability to mobilize a generation, envy for the spotlight. With Trump as our current president, the future of the app remains unstable. However, what's important to remember throughout all of this is that TikTok's importance doesn't rest on its power to influence our generation; its power is based on our generation's ability to connect for common purposes: Black Lives Matter, body positivity, feminism, and so much more. The #BlackLivesMatter received 12 million views on TikTok alone, together we can create change (Smith 2021). Together we control our futures. We are going to inherit this world in a few years, and the important thing is to understand the power we hold. Envy might be all around us, driving the decisions of others, but in the face of envy and jealousy, we have the power to be united. In an increasingly polarized world, unity is the one thing we need now more than ever.