The TikTok ban went into effect last night due to the Supreme Court’s ruling Friday and no divestment from its parent company ByteDance, but a reversal is currently underway due to Trump’s negotiations. Still, this has set a dangerous precedent. 

The Act that permits this, Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications, doesn’t just stop at TikTok, instead it gives the president the ability to ban any application from a “foreign adversity” if they feel like it poses a threat to national security.

There are two things that call to question how big of a threat the app poses, though: 1. A leaked document says that certain government officials can still access the app and 2. Trump is giving a leniency period to get the app transferred to an American company. This leads people to believe that the true motivation behind the app is silencing dissent, specifically the pro-Palestinian voices on the app. 

Mitt Romney, a U.S. Senator said, “Some wonder why there was such overwhelming support for us to shut down…TikTok… If you look at the… number of mentions of Palestinians relative to other social media sites, it’s overwhelmingly so among TikTok broadcasts…” May of last year. 

The concerns are less about privacy and more about controlling what the American public sees. What other apps are going to meet the same fate?