I opened TikTok with the rest of the world on Jan. 19 and read the words “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.”
I was in shock, even though everyone already knew the U.S. government was planning on banning the app. All those funny videos, saved edits, and memories were gone, even if temporarily.
In the weeks leading up to the threatened ban, the government kept explaining that TikTok posed a serious national security threat. The solution was simple: remove the app, and the country would be safe from the dangers of foreign influence and espionage. But this narrative overlooks a crucial reality: The threat to our personal privacy comes from within our own government, just as much as TikTok.
The government already tracks us in ways we don’t fully understand. Through mass surveillance programs, the government collects data on U.S. citizens without their knowledge, all in the name of national security. Surveillance programs often operate without transparency, and laws that are meant to protect our privacy are vague or outdated.
The issue of surveillance is not isolated to internationally run platforms like TikTok; it’s about how much power our own government has to monitor personal information. While we focus on one single app, Meta, the platform that supports Instagram and Facebook has been embedded into millions of websites for years collecting sensitive data for the purpose of targeted advertisement. This platform is infamously run by American citizen Mark Zucherburg. Zuckerburg has worked closely with the new federal Trump administration, along with Elon Musk, owner of X. Our own government already has sweeping access to influence our digital world.
This situation raises a bigger question: if we’re truly concerned about our privacy, why are we not questioning the way our own government monitors us?
Beyond the privacy concerns, banning TikTok would have serious consequences for free speech—especially for young people. TikTok has become a vital platform for youth expression, activism, and social movements. Banning the app isn’t just about data security; it’s about silencing the voices of millions who use it to speak out on issues like climate change, social justice, and mental health. Although the Supreme Court ruled that this ban does not infringe on our First Amendment rights, its implications are dangerously pointed towards censorship.
TikTok that’s the real threat—it’s government agencies’ ability to control our digital lives and limit our freedom of speech. We need to ask ourselves: who benefits from all this fear around TikTok? We are ignoring a much larger, more dangerous issue of how our data is being tracked, sold, and used against us.
The fight for privacy and free speech isn’t just about TikTok—it’s about protecting our rights in the digital world before they’re taken away completely. If we’re not careful, the fight to keep our voices online may be over before we realize it.
