[TikTok logo, photo credit to Iconfinder]

During the past few months, many countries like the United States, Europe, and Canada have been trying to ban TikTok. 

TikTok is a video-sharing app owned by the Chinese company, Byte Dance. 

These countries fear their citizens are open to security threats and try to remove this app from official government-issued devices.

Specifically in the U.S., these steps were discussed on February 27, saying  they had thirty days to delete the app on official devices. 

A couple of days later, on March 1, they took a more severe approach saying they wanted to ban TikTok from all nationwide phones as China is strongly influencing their country with this app. 

The government is incredibly determined to ban the app since more than 100 million use it in the U.S.

Like other countries, the States worry that sensitive information, like locations, are made available to the Chinese government and are in the middle of making a bill out of this issue.

Before all these government movements, many colleges banned TikTok from being used on their campuses by removing it from their wifi. 

Moreover, around two dozen states in the U.S. had already banned this social media from government-issued devices even before this topic had reached federal levels. 

Also,  devices used by the U.S. Army, marine corps, and TSA have been banned for around three years. 

Though the state courts and schools have taken great measures to remove this app from everyday lives, they failed. 

Many students turn on their cellular data to use TikTok, and those in the military could buy a new device. 

Because of these failed methods, President Biden and his administration are offering two options to the company, ByteDance.

The first choice is ByteDance selling their app to an American company as the issue, primarily, was that the app had Chinese ownership. 

The other is  banning it from public use like many countries like Britain, Canada, India (banned mid-2020), and, recently, Australia. 

On the other hand, TikTok had stated that they had a talk with the U.S. government for an agreement to resolve the issue before all these discussions arose. 

Many are siding with the company and saying that this app is not different from any other social media as they use personal information as well so that they can be used for the content of the user. 

Some organizations stepped up to defend TikTok with claims that by banning it, they are taking away the freedom of speech, as some voice their opinions on this social media platform, and civil rights by taking unnecessary actions on something that should be free for the people to choose. 

Even now, this debate is hotly taking over the world as to what kind of sanction should be made regarding TikTok.