TikTok

Updated: 02/06/2025 by Computer Hope
TikTok logo

Released in September 2016, TikTok is a popular social media app for iOS and Android devices. It primarily features videos under 15 seconds with visuals and preselected audio tracks from a library of songs and community-created audio snippets. Users can also create a "duet" response to videos they've viewed. These features allow users to collaborate, making videos based on the same original concept.

TikTok gained new features and users from Musical.ly, a similar app that ByteDance acquired on August 2, 2018, and then merged into TikTok. Because of its vast user base and focus on short-form content, many consider TikTok a successor to the discontinued app Vine.

The TikTok app is free from the Apple App Store or the Google Play store.

Note

The United States Senate passed a bill on December 15, 2022, that bans TikTok on U.S. government-issued devices. On January 18, 2025, TikTok went offline in the U.S. for 12 hours and became available again on the 19th to those who had TikTok installed. Those who haven't installed TikTok or deleted it from their phones can no longer get the app from any app store until the U.S. government decides how it should run.

Note

TikTok was featured as a top term of 2016.

Is TikTok a threat to national security?

Several times, the U.S. government has mentioned that TikTok is a threat to national security and, as mentioned earlier, even banned it from government devices. For those with sensitive government jobs, TikTok and all social media network platforms (Facebook, YouTube, etc.) can pose a security risk because they track users and their locations. However, all social media platforms and some websites can track users, so why is TikTok and not Facebook a risk? Some say it's a risk because companies outside the United States store and collect data, which the Chinese government can access. However, the same could be said about Facebook and other social media companies run in the United States.

TikTok is as much a threat to a country's national security as all social media platforms, many apps, and some websites and services. If the government or anyone else is seriously concerned about being tracked, no social media service should be allowed or used.

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