TikTok – Shaping Political Discourse for Better or for Worse?

The app boasts more users in the United States than people who voted in the 2020 election, which had the highest turnout rate of any US election since 1900.

Although many may view the app as a perpetual engagement machine hacking away at our screen time, its influence in political spheres has become a focus of debates worldwide.

Operated by its Chinese-based parent company ByteDance, TikTok’s ownership, design, and lack of age-restriction enforcement have called into question how the app influences political affairs.

Government employees cannot have the app downloaded on work phones in New Zealand, France, Norway, Belgium, and Denmark. Blanket bans have also come into force in nations such as India, Canada, and Taiwan over national security concerns.

In Albania, Prime Minister Edi Rama announced a one-year TikTok ban after a 14-year-old was fatally stabbed after a series of arguments he had with users on the app. The stabbing was then uploaded to TikTok, where some users expressed support for his attack–an incident which Rama has described as “very disturbing.”

Australia has also implemented a ban targeted at youths, with teenagers under 16 no longer permitted to use social media, including TikTok.

However, the elephant in the room is the ongoing ban in the US.

After seeing many a fair-well video from our most beloved creators across the Atlantic, they returned to our screens in just 12 hours. This came after President Donald Trump pledged to restore the app, despite Trump himself suggesting the TikTok ban in the first place. Though signed into law, Trump has expressed intent to find another solution, likely by pressuring ByteDance into selling to an American company.

What is clear from these developments over the past few months is that social media is increasingly presenting itself as an issue in parliaments worldwide.

But what do both sides argue? In this article, we will discuss the arguments of both TikTok supporters and opponents globally, covering the issues of data security, child protection, and the ethics of social media use for political purposes. 

Isolde Sellin presents arguments of the proposition, whereas Isabel Martinez de Rituerto presents the opposition’s arguments.

To ban or not to ban? That is the question…

What About Our Data? – Data Protection on TikTok

What TikTok proponents think: 

Social media apps are largely cost-free but not truly free of charge. We pay with our data. Algorithms then learn more about us to keep us engaged on the platform. With the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” the law behind the US TikTok ban, the goal was not only to protect US user data from ByteDance but also from the Chinese state, which owns partial shares in the company. But does China use the data of American users for its own purposes?

The answer is not as clear as one might think. There is evidence that pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong were identified and tracked through TikTok, but large-scale surveillance of American users has not been proven. The ban appears to be a power move by the US against its biggest economic rival, China.

However, if the US government is truly concerned about data security, shouldn’t it first look in its backyard? 

Meta, the American company behind Instagram, Facebook, and Threads, has long been accused of extensive data misuse. In 2024, Meta was fined by Ireland for exposing the personal information of Facebook users globally and by South Korea for illegally collecting and sharing personal details with advertisers. However, Meta, among other US companies, might profit from a TikTok ban. Harvard professor Eric Maskin stated in the Chicago Booth Review: “TikTok seems to be taking quite a bit of business away from US social media. A ban would give American companies a chance to catch up.” 

This raises the question: Was the ban really about protecting US citizens, or boosting US technology?

Instead of banning a single social media app that might misuse user data, the US could take an approach similar to the EU by regulating all social media platforms to improve data security. A ban does not enhance data protection. Whilst TikTok gets banned, other social media platforms will likely benefit from increased usage—and data exploitation may continue as usual.

What TikTok opponents think: 

The banning of TikTok on government workers’ phones was one of the earliest manifestations of growing concerns about the risks the platform posed to data protection. But were these bans well-founded?

 In Norway, the bans came after intelligence services identified Russia and China as risk factors, asking civil servants to only use TikTok on personal devices. Shortly after, a Norwegian minister was chastised for downloading the app on her phone. Similar measures have been taken in the UK, Estonia, New Zealand, and Taiwan. Given the long history of data protection breaches involving other platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram, what makes TikTok different?

As the first non-American social media platform to reach 1 billion active users, TikTok presents unique challenges. Owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, the platform is subject to the Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), China’s version of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Although it shares similarities with its European counterpart, concerns about the Chinese government’s ability to access personal data from TikTok through the PIPL are legally founded. This has garnered the most attention as the basis for the US TikTok ban. 

However, the platform’s data protection breaches extend beyond geopolitics. Whether due to PIPL or the platform’s business model, there are ongoing concerns regarding TikTok’s handling of personal data. The first fines in 2019 were for illegally collecting personal information from children under 13. More recently in July 2024, Ofcom fined the platform for failing to provide them with accurate information about its parental controls, highlighting the platform’s continued missteps.

TikTok may not be alone in these breaches, but persistent challenges to data protection laws and regulations outside of China could provide a means to finally hold a social media platform accountable. A move to ban TikTok on these grounds could be used to promote higher global standards for data protection, signalling that no platform, regardless of where it is based, can operate without addressing user concerns regarding privacy and security.

What About Our Time? – Addictive Algorithms and Political Discourse on TikTok

What TikTok proponents think: 

This summer was brat: green, exciting, political? “Brat” refers to the sudden hype surrounding Kamala Harris’s campaign, which was officially declared “brat” by Charli XCX—referencing her latest album. Admittedly, the momentum didn’t last and Trump won. However, for a few weeks, it seemed as if an entire generation stood behind Harris.

For many young people, TikTok is their primary source of information. Whilst right-wing populist parties and movements try to use TikTok for their own ends, the platform also engages young people in politics. It is a platform where young users can connect with peers, share opinions, and learn about politics from varied perspectives that may not be able to access mainstream platforms otherwise. Movements like Black Lives Matter and Climate Justice have used TikTok to rally support and engage in collective action. 

Banning TikTok might disproportionately affect minority groups who are using the platform to amplify their voices, including activists and community organisers. Whilst TikTok is not free from the risk of spreading misinformation, it is also the platform that allows these voices to be heard. Simply removing TikTok would limit access to a space where many young people are seeking to make sense of the political landscape.

Banning TikTok would remove an important source of information for young people. However, TikTok can also be a source of misinformation. But a ban is not a solution—just a distraction from the broader issue of misinformation online. Instead of banning a platform, governments should focus on digital literacy by integrating online media education into school curricula. Teaching students how to evaluate sources and identify biases can decrease the risks associated with social media.

What TikTok opponents think: 

TikTok’s algorithm is widely considered the most effective, with the ability to keep its users engaged for longer than other platforms. With its user base growing from 653 million users in 2019 to 2.1 billion in 2025, the average time spent on TikTok per day has doubled to 60 minutes. This highlights TikTok’s growing influence with one major implication: the spread of misinformation.

With over 1 billion active monthly users, critics argue that TikTok’s heightened engagement could lead to a breakdown in social cohesion, with its algorithm pushing users into echo chambers. ITV News reported a 327% rise in far-right activity during the UK’s race riots last summer on Telegram, an app that allows for encrypted messaging and which quickly became a rioter’s preferred means of communication. Reports from the equivalently “bad side” of TikTok have included content farms using TikTok to spread political misinformation, such as spreading the false claim that NATO has deployed troops in Ukraine. 

TikTok may provide an important platform for marginalised groups to spread their message, but a balance must be struck between this and the spread of misinformation. The platform’s recent use of AI content moderators highlights the potential for the proliferation of unmanaged biases and lack of human oversight. Proponents of TikTok could argue that Facebook, Instagram and X pose similar if not bigger threats, with conspiracy theories like #Pizzagate spreading on X or Russian interference in the 2016 US elections on Facebook. While similar campaigns of misinformation have yet to manifest on TikTok, what sets TikTok apart is its remarkably high active user rate. 

Despite smaller user bases than other platforms, TikTok boasts one of the highest relative active monthly user rates, with a substantial portion of these users returning daily. With over 13% of the world population among these users, this high frequency of engagement could make the TikTok community harder to regulate. When combined with the use of AI moderators, the platform runs the risk of failing to keep pace with the sharing of content, leaving the door open for the rapid spread of misinformation.