For 12 hours, millions of teenagers couldn’t find their fill of media from TikTok because of a Jan. 18 deadline from a national security law that removed TikTok from app stores due to TikTok’s creator, ByteDance’s, alleged ties to the Republic of China. However, one day later, President Donald Trump issued an order that moved the deadline to April 5.
TikTok should return but be given a few changes to improve its community’s security. One reason is dangerous trends such as the “Blackout” challenge, in which an individual makes themselves pass out. Another reason for TikTok to return is its 1.04 million active users.
Some bad trends can harm you or other people, such as the “Skull Breaker” challenge in which a person pulls a prank on someone by tripping them while they are jumping.
Another trend that has caused injuries includes the “Milk Crate” challenge, where a person climbs onto a milk bottle case, which was made into a staircase to the other side. The “Fire” challenge has people spraying a mirror with a flammable substance and lighting it on fire, and the “Dragon Breath” challenge has people eating food in liquid nitrogen.
The American Civil Liberties Union describes itself on its website as a nonprofit organization that works to “fight government abuse and defend individual freedoms.” The Union has since sued the government for violating the First Amendment due to the ban.
The ACLU said that the ban on TikTok has violated the First Amendment. The ACLU states that there is not enough evidence to ban TikTok as a national security threat. The First Amendment states that the government cannot get rid of speech that the government does not agree with. The ACLU says this is worrisome news because they said this could hurt our rights.
The government needs to find a balance between security and freedom of speech concerns. There should be a team that gets rid of potentially dangerous trends that are gonna get people in harm’s way. However, people should be free to post videos that are safe for all viewers. There should be a code of conduct that says there should be no hate speech or any dangerous trends.
