This webpage was generated automatically; to view the article in its initial location, you may follow the link below:
https://neworleanscitybusiness.com/blog/2025/01/17/how-tiktok-grew-from-a-fun-app-for-teens-into-a-potential-national-security-threat/
and if you wish to eliminate this article from our website, please reach out to us
If it seems like TikTok has existed for an eternity, that’s likely because it has, at least from the perspective of internet time. What remains uncertain is whether it will continue to exist much longer and, if so, in what capacity?
Beginning in 2017, when the Chinese social media application combined with its rival Musical.ly, TikTok has evolved from a specialized adolescent app into a worldwide trendsetter. While, naturally, it has also surfaced as a potential national security concern, as indicated by U.S. officials.
On April 24, President Joe Biden enacted legislation mandating that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, divest to an American owner within a year or cease operations. TikTok and its China-based parent, ByteDance, filed a lawsuit against the U.S., contending that the security issues were exaggerated and that the law should be annulled for breaching the First Amendment.
The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the federal statue banning TikTok set to commence on January 19 unless ByteDance sells it.
Here’s how TikTok arrived at this point:
March 2012
ByteDance is established in China by entrepreneur Zhang Yimin. Its inaugural hit product is Toutiao, a personalized news aggregator catering to Chinese users.
July 2014
The startup Musical.ly, renowned for its namesake app that enables users to post brief lipsyncing music videos, is founded in China by entrepreneur Alex Zhu.
July 2015
Musical.ly achieves #1 status in the Apple App Store after a redesign that prominently displays the company’s logo when users share their videos.
2016
ByteDance launches Douyin, a video-sharing application targeting Chinese users. Its success motivates the company to create an international version named TikTok.
November 2017
ByteDance purchases Musical.ly for $1 billion. Nine months later, ByteDance integrates it with TikTok.
Fueled by an algorithm that promotes binge-watching, users begin sharing an extensive array of videos on the platform, including dance moves, culinary preparations, and various “challenges” that involve performing, recording, and posting acts that vary from earnest to comedic.
February 2019
Rapper Lil Nas X releases the country-trap track “Old Town Road” on TikTok, where it goes viral and propels the song to a record 17-week run in the #1 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This incident sparks a wave of TikTok videos from musical artists who suddenly recognize TikTok as an essential avenue to engage with fans.
TikTok resolves federal allegations of infringing upon U.S. child-privacy statutes and consents to pay a $5.7 million penalty.
September 2019
The Washington Post reveals that while depictions of Hong Kong democracy demonstrations and police crackdowns are prevalent on most social media platforms, they are conspicuously absent on TikTok. The same report observes that TikTok posts tagged with #trump2020 amassed more than 70 million views.
The company asserts that TikTok’s content regulation, handled within the U.S., is not culpable and emphasizes that the app serves as a space for entertainment, not political discourse.
The Guardian discloses internal documents that allegedly detail how TikTok instructs its moderators to delete or limit the distribution of videos addressing sensitive subjects to China such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and ensuing massacre, Tibetan independence, or the sanctioned religious organization Falun Gong.
October 2019
U.S. legislators begin to express concerns regarding TikTok’s impact, advocating for a federal investigation into its acquisition of Musical.ly and a national security examination into TikTok and other Chinese-owned applications. According to news reports, that investigation commenced in November.
December 2019
The Pentagon advises all U.S. military personnel to erase TikTok from their devices, both personal and government-issued. Certain services prohibit the app on military-owned phones. In January, the Pentagon enforces a ban on the application across all military devices.
TikTok ascends to the second-most downloaded app globally, per data from analytics firm SensorTower.
May 2020
Privacy advocates file a complaint alleging that TikTok continues to breach U.S. child-protection laws and disregard a 2019 settlement agreement. The company states that it “takes safety matters seriously” and is committed to enhancing protections.
TikTok enlists former Disney executive Kevin Mayer as its chief executive officer in a clear effort to bolster its relations in the U.S. Mayer resigns three months later.
July 2020
India prohibits TikTok and numerous other Chinese applications in response to a border conflict with China.
President Donald Trump indicates he is contemplating a TikTok ban as a counteraction for China’s alleged mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
August 2020
Trump enacts a broad yet ambiguous executive order that forbids American companies from engaging in any “transaction” with ByteDance and its subsidiaries, including TikTok. A few days later, he issues a second order requiring ByteDance to divest its U.S. operations for TikTok within 90 days.
Microsoft announces it is considering a purchase of TikTok. The arrangement does not materialize, nor does a similar approach from Oracle and Walmart. In the meantime, TikTok sues the Trump administration for alleged infringement of due process concerning its executive orders.
November 2020
Joe Biden wins the presidential election. He does not propose new policies regarding TikTok and will not take office until January, but Trump’s agenda to compel a sale of TikTok starts to disintegrate. The Trump administration extends the deadlines that had been placed on ByteDance and TikTok to comply and ultimately allows them to lapse entirely.
February 2021
Newly inaugurated President Joe Biden delays the legal cases connected to Trump’s TikTok ban initiative, effectively putting them on hold.
September 2021
TikTok declares that it has over a billion monthly active users.
December 2021
A Wall Street Journal investigation reveals that TikTok’s algorithms can inundate teenagers with an overwhelming amount of harmful content, including videos endorsing extreme dieting, a form of eating disorder.
February 2022
TikTok announces new policies aimed at curbing the propagation of detrimental material, such as viral misinformation and promotion of eating disorders.
April 2022
“The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical,” a project created by two enthusiasts of the Netflix series as a TikTok project, secures the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album.
TikTok becomes the most downloaded application globally, surpassing Instagram, according to SensorTower data.
June 2022
BuzzFeed reports that employees of ByteDance, based in China, have consistentlyaccessed the confidential data of TikTok users, according to leaked audio from over 80 internal TikTok meetings. In response, TikTok issued a vague statement highlighting its dedication to security, which does not directly address the BuzzFeed report.
TikTok also revealed it has transferred its user information to U.S. servers overseen by the U.S. technology firm Oracle. However, this does not alleviate new concerns among U.S. officials regarding the risk of Chinese authorities gaining access to U.S. user information.
December 2022
FBI Director Christopher Wray expressed national security worries about TikTok, cautioning that Chinese officials might exploit the app’s recommendation algorithm for influence campaigns.
Additionally, ByteDance stated that it dismissed four employees who accessed data on journalists from Buzzfeed News and The Financial Times while trying to uncover leaks of proprietary information regarding the company.
February 2023
The White House instructed federal agencies to eliminate TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices within 30 days. Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission cautioned that ByteDance might share TikTok user data with China’s repressive government.
March 2023
Legislators questioned TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew during a six-hour congressional inquiry, where Chew, hailing from Singapore, attempted to counter claims that TikTok and ByteDance function as instruments of the Chinese government.
January 2024
TikTok announced it was limiting access to a tool some researchers utilize to evaluate trending videos on the platform.
March 2024
A proposal to prohibit TikTok or compel its sale to a U.S. business gains momentum in Congress. TikTok brings numerous creators to Washington to urge lawmakers to retract their stance, while emphasizing modifications the company has implemented to safeguard user data. TikTok further frustrates lawmakers by sending alerts to users encouraging them to “voice their opinions now” or face the possibility of TikTok being banned; users subsequently inundate congressional offices with calls.
The House of Representatives approves the TikTok ban-or-sell bill.
April 2024
The Senate mirrors this action, forwarding the bill to President Biden, who signs it into law.
May 2024
TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance file a lawsuit against the U.S. federal government, contesting a law that would mandate the sale of ByteDance’s shares or result in a ban, asserting that the law violates the Constitution.
June 2024
Former President Donald Trump joins TikTok and starts sharing campaign-related posts.
July 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris also joins TikTok and begins to post campaign-associated content.
Dec. 6, 2024
A federal appeals court panel unanimously upheld legislation that may lead to a TikTok prohibition, delivering a significant defeat to the widely-used social media platform as it fights for its existence in the U.S. The panel of judges dismissed the company’s challenge to the law, which it claimed violated the First Amendment.
Dec. 27, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump requested that the Supreme Court delay the potential TikTok ban from being enforced until his administration could seek a “political resolution” to the matter.
Jan. 17, 2025
The Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the federal law banning TikTok unless it’s sold by its China-based parent company, determining that the threat to national security posed by its connections to China outweighs concerns regarding the suppression of free speech by the app. A prohibition is set to take effect on Jan. 19, 2025.
This page was generated programmatically; to read the article in its original location, you can visit the link below:
https://neworleanscitybusiness.com/blog/2025/01/17/how-tiktok-grew-from-a-fun-app-for-teens-into-a-potential-national-security-threat/
and if you wish to have this article removed from our site, please reach out to us
This page was generated programmatically, to access the article in its original setting you can…
This page was generated programmatically. To view the article in its initial location, please visit…
This page was generated automatically; to view the article in its original setting, you may…
This page was generated programmatically, to view the article in its original setting you can…
This page was generated automatically; to view the article in its initial location, you may…
This page was generated automatically. To view the article in its original setting, you can…