In recent weeks, TikTok has faced threats of losing operations in the United States due to national security threats, including Saturday night to Sunday morning when the app was unavailable for Americans, including the students at Ferris State.
According to a survey by the Journal of Mental Health and Social Behavior, over 50% of college students use TikTok, making the ban a little closer to home for students enrolled at Ferris.
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The ban, discussed since 2020, made its way to the Supreme Court on January 10, 2025. The law will make it illegal for any app store in the United States to carry the app. TikTok has said it will “go dark” in response to the ban. Following through with this response, TikTok went dark for 14 hours after the ban, only to come back online around 1 p.m. on Sunday. The reason for the return is due to President Donald Trump’s 75-day extension for TikTok to find a buyer.
Noel Francisco, the representative for TikTok in the Supreme Court case argued, “Whether you call that a ban or a divestiture, one thing is clear: It’s a burden on TikTok’s speech, so the First Amendment applies.”
The threats of the ban began to stir up several different opinions among the students at Ferris State. With the ban threat, Ferris students began giving their opinions on the situation.
Psychology senior Royona Charles reflected on the loss of TikTok.
“I just think that TikTok will always be known for the information, just how much revolution came from it,” Charles said. “Honestly, people teamed up, and a lot of conversation started. I think that it opened the eyes of people to have small businesses and realize what hobbies they had. So, all in all, I think it made people more creative.”
Research from the Harvard Public Health Magazine supports Charles’ conclusions about TikTok, showing that the platform has been known to create connections for many people, allowing small businesses to bloom, sharing helpful recipes and even allowing people to connect over mental health and shared experiences.
While not all students use the app, those who do have begun taking sides in the matter.
Many students throughout the campus continued to show confused feelings on the idea of TikTok being banned. Some students hardly use the platform, the ban not impacting their lives, while others use it daily. Some active users still stand on both sides, understanding both arguments.
Elementary education freshman Maria Riddering shared her feelings of being on the fence.
“I know personally I wouldn’t like it, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world either if it got banned. I think I would be a little more productive if it did. But, other than that, there’s a lot of information that I don’t normally learn unless I see it through TikTok. And it goes either way with me, if it gets banned, my day is not going to be ruined,” Riddering said. “But if it does get banned, I feel like I’m going to miss out on a lot of information.”
Riddering is not in the wrong with the amount of information shared on TikTok, a study from the Pew Research Center shows that the percentage of information shared and consumed through the app has been steadily increasing since its popularity in 2020.
The unclear future had some students from Ferris starting up accounts on other apps like TikTok. Most notably, most are heading to RedNote, an app with a similar setup and algorithm as TikTok.
The future of TikTok is still under consideration in the U.S., while the app is back online for now, the future is under blurry lens.