Democracy Dies in Darkness

They found safe spaces on TikTok. A ban could devastate their communities.

April 25, 2024 at 11:53 p.m. EDT
Some TikTok community members expressed deeper anxiety over the potential loss of their close-knit circles on the app. (Video: The Washington Post/Courtesy of Sam Reall; Gabrielle Valdez; Jackie Gonzalez; Kristie Carnevale)
8 min

President Biden signed legislation Wednesday that could ban TikTok, leaving users in the United States who have spent years building a home on the platform worried about losing the communities they have come to cherish.

As talk of a potential ban escalated, creators encouraged fellow users to contact lawmakers and voice their discontent about the measure, which is rooted in security concerns over the app’s Chinese ownership. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has roughly nine months to sell the app to a U.S. company — or TikTok could be banned nationally.