By Miah Stringer
Staff Writer
Recently, Trump has voiced his plan to ban Tik Tok in the US. Now, the Trump Administration is pushing forward with its plan to ban Chinese apps Tik Tok and WeChat from the American app store. The reasoning behind banning these apps is a little unclear, as the administration is claiming that it is to protect Americans for their national security, but is not elaborating much further on details. Trump has pushed for an American company to buy Tik Tok in order to keep it within the United States, however no official transactions have been confirmed. The owner of Tik Tok, ByteDance, is reluctant to sell the app, though there have been multiple offers made by various companies. Starting Sunday, Tik Tok will be unavailable to download. However, a full ban is planned to take effect on November 12, 2020, unless an American company buys the platform. For the 50 million active Tik Tok users, this is a very big change. Tik Tok has become a very popular app, particularly among Generation Z. Tik Tok has been a very powerful platform, even when it comes to politics. At a Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on June 20, 2020, Tik Tokers pranked the Trump campaign into believing that a very large number of people were attending. Instead, the numbers were way lower than expected, due to a Tik Tok prank, where Tik Tokers “reserved” seats online and never showed up. For the majority of Gen Z, taking away Tik Tok would be taking away a platform where countless influencers voice their opinions and bring awareness to various topics in the media.