It’s been a whirlwind week for TikTok and its roughly 170 million customers in america.
On Friday, the Supreme Court docket unanimously upheld a legislation that successfully banned the Chinese language-owned social media app.
Late on Saturday, the app went darkish nationwide. However lower than 24 hours later, it got here again.
Then, on Monday, President Trump signed an govt order to delay implementing a federal ban of TikTok for 75 days.
Have you ever been listening to the current information about TikTok? How did you are feeling when the app went darkish? What do you assume would be the final destiny of the wildly widespread app?
In “What We Know In regards to the TikTok Ban,” Sapna Maheshwari writes:
Beginning on Saturday evening, TikTok, the short-form video app owned by the Chinese language firm ByteDance, was unavailable in america on account of a brand new legislation that banned the corporate’s apps within the nation. By round midday on Sunday, it was again.
Although the legislation calls on ByteDance to promote TikTok to non-Chinese language homeowners or face a ban beginning Sunday, TikTok stated it was responding to new “readability” from President-elect Donald J. Trump when it restored service.
Mr. Trump vowed early Sunday to stall the implementation of the ban to provide TikTok extra time to make a sale that will fulfill the legislation. It’s nonetheless not clear how he’ll have the opportunity to take action.
The article seems to be at whether or not Mr. Trump can legally reverse the ban along with his govt order:
The brand new legislation has a provision that claims a president can concern a one-time extension of 90 days to the ban, if she or he certifies to Congress {that a} “certified divestiture” is underway and that it will probably happen throughout that interval. Nevertheless it’s not clear if he can train that choice now that the legislation has taken impact. The legislation was handed by Congress with huge bipartisan help, signed by President Biden and now upheld by the Supreme Court docket. So to easily subvert it now will increase severe questions.
Why did Congress ban the app within the first place? In “This Was the Authorities’s Case for Banning TikTok on Nationwide Safety Grounds,” David E. Sanger explains Congress’s issues:
… the argument in regards to the danger has sometimes been described in hypothetical phrases: The federal government fears that underneath Chinese language legislation, TikTok executives may very well be ordered to let disinformation seep into the app, and thus deep into the cerebral cortexes of a number of generations of People. In its arguments to the court docket, the federal government made the case that as a result of TikTok collects a lot knowledge on its customers — their pursuits, their preferences, generally even their geolocation — China might use the info for “espionage or blackmail” or to “advance its geopolitical pursuits” by “sowing discord and disinformation throughout a disaster.”
And, within the associated article “In america, Customers React to Life (Briefly) With out TikTok,” Madison Malone Kircher and Eli Tan talked to TikTok followers in regards to the momentary ban:
“I can’t consider I’m making an Instagram reel to complain about this proper now as a result of usually when something occurs on the planet, I am going to TikTok,” the influencer James Charles stated in a video late Saturday evening.
Mr. Charles, who has 20 million followers on Instagram, was reacting to the notification that customers in america had obtained earlier within the night informing them that the app could be going darkish.
The article continues:
“It was simply so disappointing,” Casey Lewis, who writes the youth tradition publication After College, stated of utilizing Reels after the ban went into impact. “TikTok, the algorithm, simply is aware of me and provides me every part I wish to see.”
College students, learn one or all three of the articles of their entirety after which inform us:
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What’s your response to the whirlwind of TikTok information? Did the momentary ban of the favored social media app have an effect on you? How about your mates?
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Do you utilize TikTok? In that case, how a lot and what for? What, if something, would you lose if the app had been completely banned?
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Congress overwhelmingly handed the legislation final yr to ban TikTok or drive its sale over issues that the Chinese language authorities might use the app to assemble details about People or unfold propaganda. Nonetheless, legal professionals for TikTok and creators who use the app argued earlier than the Supreme Court docket that banning the platform would infringe on the First Modification. Which arguments do you discover most persuasive, and why?
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Within the visitor essay “I’m a 17-Yr-Outdated TikTok Junkie. I Want This Ban,” Juliet Weisfogel writes: “I like TikTok a lot that I can not think about a life with out it. And but I desperately want a life with out it.” Does her standpoint resonate with you?
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What, if something, do you assume is lacking from the talk over TikTok? What do you assume adults, notably these with the ability to make selections in regards to the app, could not perceive about it, and particularly about how younger individuals use it?
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What do you assume would be the final destiny of TikTok in America? Do you assume it will likely be completely banned or bought? What do you assume ought to occur?
College students 13 and older in america and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to remark. All feedback are moderated by the Studying Community workers, however please remember that as soon as your remark is accepted, it will likely be made public and will seem in print.
Discover extra Pupil Opinion questions right here. Lecturers, take a look at this information to study how one can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.
