Support for a nationwide TikTok ban is declining among Americans, according to a new Pew Research poll. The new poll comes more than four months after the United States Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed a bill that would force TikTok's parent company ByteDance to sell the app.
How A TikTok Ban First Became A Possibility
The notion of banning the immensely popular short-form video app first gained traction back in 2020, when then-president Donald Trump threatened to ban the app. Trump claimed the app was a national security threat due to being owned by a Chinese company. The U.S. government has long held concerns that any Chinese company is susceptible to oversight from the Chinese government, meaning an on-again, off-again rival could potentially gain access to the sensitive data of hundreds of millions of American users.
That threat has, so far, been unsubstantiated according both to TikTok and to legal experts (though the possibility of the threat is not far-fetched). TikTok and its users also drew Trump's ire after using the platform to essentially "troll" the president's re-election campaigns in various ways.
Trump passed an executive order demanding ByteDance divest of TikTok in July 2020, an order that was almost immediately challenged by the company. Since then, TikTok has won several court cases against the U.S. government that have sought to force some sort of intervention in the company's ownership. It's worth noting that Trump eventually joined the platform in July 2024 in the midst of his presidential campaign. His opponent Kamala Harris (vice president under Biden) also has a presence on the app.
Where The TikTok Ban Currently Sits
In April, President Biden signed a bill once again forcing a ByteDance to sell TikTok. And, once again, the company immediately filed a lawsuit saying the move was unconstitutional. While anything could happen, there's no substantially different reasoning behind the bill that seeks to force a sale of TikTok, and so far the company has won every legal challenge against the U.S. government.
It doesn't mean it will happen again, but TikTok probably feels a lot more confident knowing it's undefeated in the matter. And with the latest polling data showing a massive swing in public opinion on the matter, the company is likely bullish on its prospects to win in court again.
Back in March 2023, when Congress really ramped up its efforts to pass a bill forcing a TikTok sale, 50 percent of U.S. adults supported the idea. That included 60 percent of Republicans and 43 percent of Democrats.
Now, only 32 percent of U.S. adults support a TikTok ban, a significant drop in a fairly short amount of time. Even more interesting, that number dropped among users who don't use TikTok, meaning it's not just a matter of more people using it and liking it, but a genuine shift in perspective even among those who never used it. Now, as many people who don't use TikTok are as likely to support a ban (42 percent) as they are to be uncertain about it (43 percent).
Americans Also Doubt A TikTok Ban Will Happen
Even with a bill passed by Congress and signed by the president, half of Americans think a TikTok ban is unlikely compared to 31 percent who think it's likely. Republicans are more likely to believe TikTok is a national security threat, but equally unconvinced as Democrats that it will happen.
This doubt could be for several reasons. For one, the government has tried multiple times and lost every legal battle. The issue has also dragged on now for more than four years, with the app only getting more popular.
And for all their bluster during congressional hearings, U.S. Representatives and Senators didn't come across as particularly knowledgable or trustworthy during questioning. Everything ranging from a lack of understanding of the app to blatant xenophobia clouded the hearings — with many clips, not surprisingly, going viral on TikTok. Many government officials had accounts on the app while also advocating for a forced sale.
And now that both major presidential candidates have accounts with the platform, it certainly seems like all the concern over the app being a national security threat (if it is) doesn't outweigh the desire for candidates to reach voters anywhere they are.
What It Means For Content Creators
We've been covering the prospect of a TikTok ban for a long time now. We still get the occasional question about it, though certainly those concerns have dwindled over the past few months (seemingly in line with American support for the ban).
Our advice has stayed the same: keep creating. Most creators aren't even creating for one specific platform anyway. While you may prefer one, or you may see the most engagement on one, crossposting continues to be the most valuable way to utilize your content.
Even if TikTok did disappear tomorrow, the style of content it popularized is still utilized on plenty of massive apps with hundreds of millions, and even billions, of potential followers out there. While we're obviously big fans of staying aware of what's going on in the content creator world (that's literally the reason for the Learn Stuff section), content creators shouldn't concern themselves with something as far out of their control as a TikTok ban — especially when there have never been more ways to reach an audience.