TikTok

Trump Revives TikTok

President Donald Trump signed an executive order yesterday staving off the enforcement of the TikTok ban-or-sell law, giving the social media app 75 more days to find an American buyer.

TikTok was scheduled to shut down in the U.S. on January 19, one day prior to Mr. Trump’s inauguration, after failing to comply with the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (the Act).

The bipartisan act, which then-President Biden signed into law last April, required TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent to continue operating in the U.S.

Americans couldn’t access TikTok online or on app stores for about 14 hours Sunday morning before the soon-to-be-President took to Truth Social, promising to delay the Act’s enforcement and shield companies from financial liability.

The Act can fine companies $5,000 per person that accesses TikTok past January 19.

Mr. Trump’s promise was enough for web hosts like Oracle and Akami to restored online access to TikTok before his inauguration. But TikTok remains absent from app store platforms like Google and Apple, even after President Trump issued his official order, in apparent deference to lingering legal questions.

Legal experts disagree over whether a President can effectively change or negate a law passed by Congress with an executive order.

Importantly, Mr. Trump’s order doesn’t actually extend the law’s deadline. It orders the Attorney General not to enforce the law for another 75 days. While most seem to agree the President can control what laws the Department of Justice enforces, some argue it doesn’t set a good precedent. Zachary Price, a professor at the University of California College of Law in San Francisco, told The New York Times:

I don’t think it’s consistent with faithful execution of the law to direct the attorney general to not enforce [the law] for a determinate period.

Though many have expressed doubts about the executive order, it’s unclear what group would go so far as to challenge it in court. The edict has broad, bi-partisan appeal. Legislators spent the last week working furiously to get out of the deadline they had created, reluctant to kick 170 million Americans off an admittedly addictive app.

Though few have criticized Mr. Trump’s order directly, those concerned with national security continued discouraging app stores from platforming TikTok. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton wrote on X:

Any company that hosts, distributes, services or otherwise facilitates communist-controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars or ruinous liability under the law, not just from the DOJ, but also under securities law, shareholders lawsuits and state AGs. Think about it.

Mr. Trump’s commitment to finding TikTok an American buyer might mollify security hawks like Cotton enough to keep them from formally challenging the order. The trouble, then, is convincing China to let TikTok go.

Evidence suggests the Chinese government has significant sway over TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance. Some, like South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, have even suggested China’s President, Xi Jingping, holds stock in ByteDance. Either way, the company will be unable to sell TikTok without the People’s Republic of China’s say so.

Yesterday, for the first time, the Chinese government seemed to soften their stance on selling TikTok to an American company.

“For such actions as corporate operations and acquisitions, we always believe they should be decided independently by companies based on market principles,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing on Monday.

Your kids might be able to maintain access to TikTok — but should they? Read the articles below to find out why you should think twice about TikTok and other social media platforms.

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Supreme Court Upholds TikTok Ban

The Supreme Court declined today to delay the enforcement of the TikTok ban-or-sell law, all but guaranteeing social media app will cease operating in the U.S. on Sunday.

The company had requested the Supreme Court issue a temporary injunction against the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (the Act), which requires TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, in order to continue operating in the United States.

TikTok spent most of last year trying to get the law thrown out, with no success. In December, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals became the highest court to find the law unconstitutional. The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision upholds the D.C. Circuit’s ruling — and echoes many of the circuit judges’ arguments.

The Act in question could prevent 170 million American TikTok users from expressing themselves on TikTok. For it to be constitutional, the federal government had to convince the Supreme Court that it 1) serves a legitimate government interest and 2) violates as few rights as possible in achieving that interest.

In an unsigned majority opinion, the justices found the government’s concern about TikTok’s extensive data collection, and China’s interest in that data, legitimate. The opinion reads, in part:

Even if China has not yet leveraged its relationship with ByteDance Ltd. to access U.S. TikTok users’ data, petitioners offer no basis for concluding that the Government’s determination that China might do so is not at least a “reasonable inference based on substantial evidence.”

The justices further concluded the Act was narrowly tailored because it doesn’t require TikTok to leave the U.S. — only cut ties with its Chinese ownership.

Justices Sotomayor and Gorsuch wrote concurring opinions finding that the Act placed a higher burden on free speech than the majority. Still, Justice Gorsuch concluded:

I am persuaded that the law before us seeks to serve a compelling interest: preventing a foreign country, designated by Congress and the President as an adversary of our Nation, from harvesting vast troves of personal information about tens of millions of Americans.

Gorsuch specifically references TikTok’s ability to access non-users’ data:

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, TikTok can access “any data” stored in a consenting user’s ‘contact list’ —including names, photos, and other personal information about unconsenting third parties.

The ruling, while not unexpected, puts legislators in a tough position. Many, including those who supported the law, don’t want to assume blame for kicking 170 million American TikTok users off their favorite app.

President-elect Trump, in particular, appears motivated to extend the Act’s deadline so TikTok has more time to find an American buyer. He will be inaugurated just one day after TikTok shuts down.

According to Alan Rozenshtein, former national security advisor to the Justice Department, Mr. Trump could achieve this goal by encouraging Congress to repeal the law or instructing his would-be Attorney General, Pam Bondi, not to enforce it.

Absent a guarantee that the law will not be enforced, its unlikely app stores will continue to host TikTok — even for one day. The Act promises to fine uncompliant app stores up to $5,000 dollars for every user that accesses TikTok after the shutdown deadline.

Both President Biden and Mr. Trump have also considered delaying TikTok’s shutdown date with an executive order, multiple outlets report. An anonymous White House official told Politico this strategy is likely illegal:

Our interpretation of the law that Congress passed is that absent a credible plan from the company on how they will divest, the President does not have the statutory authority to trigger the 90-day extension.

The official continued:

The company has not only not advanced such a plan, they have signaled they have no intention of selling it to an American owner.

The next couple of days promise to be interesting. One thing that won’t change? TikTok is bad for your kids. Check out the articles below to find out why.

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TikTok Ban Three Days Away

Time is ticking for TikTok.

The social media app has just three days to comply with the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, a law forcing it to divest from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

If ByteDance refuses to sell, and the Supreme Court declines to temporarily block the law, TikTok will shut down in the U.S. on Sunday.

The Act, which President Biden signed into law in April 2024, addresses bipartisan concerns that TikTok threatens U.S. security. Chinese law requires all Chinese-owned companies, including ByteDance, to make their data available to the government. That means the PRC has access to the data TikTok collects on all 170 million American users, including their names, ages, emails, phone numbers, contact lists, in-app messages, IP addresses, keystroke and in-app usage patterns, browsing and search history, location data and biometric identifiers.

China uses this data to expand its massive U.S. intelligence gathering operation. Casey Blackburn, the Assistant Director of U.S. National Intelligence, told the D.C. Circuit Court last month,

[China] is the most active, persistent cyber espionage threat to the U.S. government, private-sector and critical networks.

These threats, Blackburn continued, include “extensive, years-long efforts to accumulate structured datasets, in particular on U.S. persons, to support its intelligence and counterintelligence operations.”

TikTok spent 2024 in court trying to get the Act declared unconstitutional, but testimony like Blackburn’s proved too convincing to overcome. The D.C. Court affirmed a lower court ruling finding the Act constitutional, writing:

The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States. Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.

TikTok has asked the Supreme Court to temporarily stop the law’s enforcement so it can appeal to the Supreme Court or the benevolence of the incoming administration. President-elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated one day after the January 19 shutdown date.  

The Court is expected to weigh in by Sunday.

TikTok poses more than just a national security threat; Thirteen states and the District of Columbia are suing the company for the unethical treatment of children. But ahead of the looming deadline, many former TikTok critics have thrown their weight behind finding TikTok an American buyer — including the President-elect.

Politico reports TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will attend Mr. Trump’s inauguration on January 20. On the other side of the aisle, President Biden is considering using an executive order to extend the Act’s deadline, Forbes reports.

Caitlin Legacki, a former member of the Biden Commerce Department, broke down the situation for Politico:

Somebody is going to find a way to strike a deal, and they will be regarded as a hero of the TikTok generation…I think it speaks to a failure of both parties to actually explain to voters why this was necessary, and as a result, we’re going to probably roll back what was the correct policy.

It’s difficult to predict what will happen this Sunday, but one thing won’t change — TikTok isn’t good for children. Check out the articles below to learn how you protect your kids from social media.

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TikTok Scrambles Amid Looming Ban

TikTok asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit this week to postpone the enforcement of a law that could ban the social media platform from America.

The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (the Act) gives TikTok until January 19 to cut ties with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. The law, which President Biden signed in April, addresses years-long, bipartisan concerns that the Chinese government uses TikTok to gather data on American citizens.

TikTok spent months trying to get the law thrown out as a free speech violation. The D.C. Circuit effectively dashed those hopes last week after unanimously finding the Act constitutional.

“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” Senior Circuit Judge Douglas Ginsburg wrote in the Court’s majority opinion, continuing:

Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.

Government laws that infringe on free speech rights must 1) serve a compelling government interest and 2) be narrowly tailored to serve that purpose. Though the Court acknowledged a ban would infringe on the free expression of some 170 million users, it concluded the Act met this two-pronged test.

In his concurring opinion, Judge Sri Srinivasan wrote:

To give effect to [the competing interests of free speech and national security], Congress chose divestment as a means of paring away the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] control — and thus containing the security threat — while maintaining the app and its algorithm for American users.
Congress judged it necessary to assume the risk [of banning TikTok] given the grave national-security threats it perceived.

As Srinivasan notes, the Court’s opinion reflects a preponderance of evidence that TikTok funnels important user data to one of America’s greatest foreign adversaries.

Assistant Director of National Intelligence Casey Blackburn calls China “the most active, persistent cyber espionage threat to the U.S. government, private-sector and critical networks.” Part of these threats include China’s “extensive, years-long efforts to accumulate structured datasets, in particular on U.S. persons, to support its intelligence and counterintelligence operations.”

Chinese law requires all Chinese-owned companies — including ByteDance — to make their data available to the government. That means China has access to the names, ages, emails, phone numbers and, often, contact lists U.S. users divulge to TikTok when they sign up.

The PRC can also access TikTok’s users’ in-app messages, in-app usage patterns, IP addresses, keystroke patterns, browsing and search history, location data and biometric identifiers like face- and voiceprints—all metrics TikTok tracks, according to its “privacy policy.”

TikTok claims it retains American data on local servers the Chinese government can’t access. Public reporting and evidence presented by the Department of Justice suggest otherwise.

Despite TikTok’s assurances, audio recordings of ByteDance meetings indicate the company “retained considerable control and influence” over U.S. users’ data.

The Congressional investigative committee that recommended passing the Act found:

  • “Public reporting suggested that TikTok had stored sensitive information about U.S. persons (including ‘Social Security numbers and tax identifications’) on servers in China;
  • “TikTok’s ‘China-based employees’ had ‘repeatedly accessed non-public data about U.S. TikTok users.’
  • “ByteDance employees had ‘accessed TikTok user data and IP addresses to monitor the physical locations of specific U.S. citizens.”

This is not the first time TikTok has been accused of mishandling user data. In October, thirteen states and the District of Columbia filed lawsuits accusing TikTok, in part, of illegally collecting children’s data.

“TikTok actively collects and monetizes data on users under 13 years old, in violation of Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and does so without parental consent,” New York Attorney General Leticia James wrote in a press release detailing the allegations.

Evidence uncovered in these cases suggest a significant portion of TikTok’s American users are minors. An internal study from TikTok found as many as 95% of American smartphone users under 17 years old use the app.  An estimated 35% of TikTok’s American ad revenue comes from children and teens.

TikTok hopes the D.C. Circuit will grant it enough time to appeal to the Supreme Court — or the beneficence of the incoming Trump administration — before January 19.

Though President Trump was the first to openly acknowledge the risk TikTok posed to national security in 2019, some allies predict he will help facilitate a deal between TikTok and a new American owner. The Chinese government says it will oppose such a deal, preventing ByteDance from releasing TikTok and forbidding the sale of its money-making algorithm.

The Department of Justice officially opposed TikTok’s petition for a preliminary injunction on Wednesday. As of December 13, the Court has not yet responded.

Parents might not be able to control whether TikTok will be banned in America, but you can take steps to keep your kids safe online. To learn more about social media and its effects on children, check out the articles below.

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“Plugged In Parent’s Guide to Today’s Technology” equips parents to navigate the ever-shifting tech realm.

TikTok Dangerous for Minors — Leaked Docs Show Company Refuses to Protect Kids

Teen Boys Falling Prey to Financial Sextortion — Here’s What Parents Can Do

Instagram’s Sextortion Safety Measures — Too Little, Too Late?

Kid’s Online Safety Act — What It Is and Why It’s a Big Deal

Instagram Content Restrictions Don’t Work, Tests Show

Zuckerberg Implicated in Meta’s Failures to Protect Children

Surgeon General Recommends Warning on Social Media Platforms

‘The Dirty Dozen List’ — Corporations Enable and Profit from Sexual Exploitation

Four Ways to Protect Your Kids from Bad Tech, From Social Psychologist Jonathan Haidt

Parent-Run Groups Help Stop Childhood Smartphone Use

Survey Finds Teens Use Social Media More Than Four Hours Per Day — Here’s What Parents Can Do

TikTok Dangerous for Minors — Leaked Docs Show Company Refuses to Protect Kids

Leaked documents from inside TikTok suggest the social media giant intentionally endangers kids to benefit its bottom line.

A group of 13 states and the District of Columbia filed individual suits against the Chinese-owned company earlier this month, alleging:

TikTok’s underlying business model focuses on maximizing young users’ time on the platform so the company can boost revenue from selling targeted ads.

The suits claim TikTok’s addictive features, like autoplay and 24-hour push notifications, as well as, marketing strategies, like promoting beauty filters, harm children’s mental and physical health. Evidence uncovered in the states’ two-year investigation into the platform suggests the company knew about these problems and allowed them to continue.

TikTok’s internal documents and communications should have been hidden from the public. However, problems with the redaction in South Carolina’s and Kentucky’s cases prematurely revealed some clandestine details.

It doesn’t look good for TikTok.

Users 12-and-Up

On the Apple App Store, TikTok claims its content is suitable for children ages 12 and up. But Apple challenged that age rating in 2022, according to evidence in South Carolina’s case against TikTok.  

The Washington Post reports:

A team at Apple reviewing TikTok’s rating found that the app features ‘frequent or intense mature or suggestive content’ and pressed the platform to raise its recommended age to 17 and over.

But TikTok refused to give up its kid-friendly rating. Instead, it claimed it took “aggressive strategies” to filter and remove the kinds of content Apple flagged. South Carolina’s suit says it didn’t work. TikTok still shows children inappropriate and vulgar content, the case alleges, but the company doesn’t want to cop to it.

Big Business

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who helped lead the charge against TikTok, says TikTok has financial incentives to keep its age rating low. A press release explaining the case claims approximately 35% of TikTok’s American ad revenue comes from children and teens.

Leaked information from Kentucky’s case, reviewed and published by NPR, supports James’ assertion.

TikTok knows know many of its most dedicated users are minors. One internal study of its users found 95% of American smartphone users under 17-years-old use the app. Another study of TikTok’s engagement statistics notes, “As expected, across most engagement metrics, the younger the user, the better the performance.”

The company knows it must keep young users engaged. In one employee chat regarding a TikTok tool meant to decrease the time minors spend on the app, a project manager admitted, “Our goal is not to reduce the time spent [on TikTok].” Another employee added, “[The goal is] to contribute to daily active users and retention [of other users].”

Flimsy Features

The aforementioned tool allows parents to impose an hour-long TikTok time limit — a feature that would impact TikTok’s goal if it worked. But it doesn’t. TikTok estimates it only reduces usage time by an average of 1.5 minutes.

Another internal document suggests the screen-time limit wasn’t built to work well. TikTok only evaluated the feature’s success by how it “improved public trust in the TikTok platform via media coverage.”

TikTok apparently instructs their content moderators to perform a similarly shoddy job. A document referring to “younger users/U13” tells moderators to leave underage users’ accounts alone unless it explicitly identifies them as under 13 years old.

Addiction, Inc.

TikTok doesn’t just turn a blind eye to minors on its platform — it recruits them.

The platform discovered users must watch 260 videos to form a TikTok habit. Kentucky’s lawsuit elaborates:

While this may seem substantial, TikTok videos can be as short as 8 seconds and are played for viewers in rapid-fire succession, automatically. Thus, in under 35 minutes, an average user is likely to become addicted to the platform.

TikTok knows its most engaging features cause young people to compulsively open its app. It also knows what problems these compulsions cause. The company’s internal research concludes:

Compulsive usage correlates with a slew of negative mental health effects like loss of analytical skills, memory formation, contextual thinking, conversational depth, empathy and increased anxiety. … [It] also interferes with essential responsibilities like sufficient sleep, work/school responsibilities and connecting with loved ones.
Trapped in PainHub

One of the platform’s most addictive features is its algorithm, which learns and feeds users the kinds of videos they like. But ingesting too much of the same content can quickly skew the way users view the world.

A good example of this comes from one of TikTok’s employees, who participated in an internal study of “filter bubbles” — the kind of homogenous content filtering that occurs when social media algorithms determine what posts users engage with.

This employee wrote:

After following several ‘painhub’ and ‘sadnotes’ accounts, it took me 20 minutes to drop into a ‘negative’ filter bubble. The intensive density of negative content make me lower down mood (sic) and increase my sadness feelings (sic) though I am in a high spirit in my recent life.

The employee is referencing TikTok accounts featuring exclusively sad stories and comments from people in pain. Ostensibly designed to support those going through a hard time, an excess of this kind of content makes the world seem like a perpetually dark place.

To avoid filter bubbles, TikTok claims to offer a “Refresh” feature that resets the algorithm. James’ press release says this feature “does not work as TikTok claims.”

Online Strip Club

So TikTok knows minors generate big profits, creates addictive features to keep them on the app, turns a blind eye to underage users and allows them to binge on inappropriate content. Yikes.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, it gets worse.

One incident documented in Kentucky’s case involves TikTok Live, a feature that allows users to broadcast live videos of themselves. In 2022, TikTok discovered “a significant” number of adults had started paying minors to strip on live video.

You read that right. In one month alone, adults sent more than 1 million ‘gifts’ — real money converted into digital currency — to kids for ‘transactional’ behavior.

D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb calls this an “unlicensed payment system” that incentivizes minors to prostitute themselves. He told the Post:

TikTok has designed its money transmission business to lure children in, using childlike cartoons and emojis to make it look like the children are playing games, when in fact they are being exploited financially.

In contrast, a TikTok official commented to coworkers:

One of our key discoveries during this project that has turned into a major challenge with Live business is that the content that gets the highest engagement may not be the content we want on our platform.
Why It Matters

The more we learn about social media, the more obvious it seems that children shouldn’t get within ten feet of it. To learn more about what you can do to keep your child screen-free, take a look at the articles linked below.

At least commit to enforcing strong boundaries around technology. Some ideas include requiring your children to scroll social media in public area, regularly checking their social media feeds for inappropriate content and educating them about sextortion and other predatory online behaviors.

Remember that companies like TikTok and Meta will not reliably protect your child from exploitation and inappropriate content. It’s up to parents to keep kids safe online.

Additional Articles and Resources

Four Ways to Protect Your Kids from Bad Tech, From Social Psychologist Jonathan Haidt

Parent-Run Groups Help Stop Childhood Smartphone Use

Survey Finds Teens Use Social Media More Than Four Hours Per Day — Here’s What Parents Can Do

Teen Boys Falling Prey to Financial Sextortion — Here’s What Parents Can Do

Instagram’s Sextortion Safety Measures — Too Little, Too Late?

Kid’s Online Safety Act — What It Is and Why It’s a Big Deal

Instagram Content Restrictions Don’t Work, Tests Show

Zuckerberg Implicated in Meta’s Failures to Protect Children

Surgeon General Recommends Warning on Social Media Platforms

‘The Dirty Dozen List’ — Corporations Enable and Profit from Sexual Exploitation