Saturday, December 7

TikTok's appeal against a recently passed law has failed, meaning that the social media app is one step closer to being banned in the United States.

TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is one of the most popular social media apps in the world. The platform has over 1 billion monthly users, around 1/8 of the global population, 170 million of which are in the United States.

However, the United States has been taking steps towards phasing out TikTok. Earlier this year, the US Congress passed a law giving ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok before it was banned across the countries, which would have a major effect on the lives of Americans. The average adult in the US spends almost an hour a day on TikTok, and over half of the country's population uses it. From an economical perspective, the app provides a massive benefit to the US: 7 million small businesses use TikTok for advertising, and the app supports over 224,000 jobs in the country.

Nevertheless, due to fears of spying by the Chinese government, the United States continued with the ban. Another company buying TikTok would be one of the least likely possibilities, as ByteDance is not willing to sell the platform and TikTok comes with a hefty price tag-- its parent company is valued at a staggering $225 billion.

Another possibility would be the recreation of TikTok by an American company, but that is also highly unlikely. The platform utilizes a complex network of data processing centers, artificial intelligence, and other technical infrastructure that is extremely expensive and requires large amounts of space. This would make the replication of TikTok a long, costly, and tedious process that could require billions of dollars and take several years to develop.

TikTok swiftly appealed the law, taking their case to a federal appeals court. They stated that the law heavily impeded upon the free speech of their 170 million American users, making it a violation of the 1st Amendment. The court made their decision yesterday, though, and they did not agree. They claimed that the ban "was part of a broader effort to counter a well-substantiated national security threat posed by the PRC (People's Republic of China)," upholding the ban. TikTok has confirmed that they will take their case to the Supreme Court, who they hope will view the issue a different way.

However, there is also the impending arrival of Trump to consider. The law is set to take effect on January 19, one day before Trump is inaugurated as the next president of the United States. While Trump attempted to ban TikTok as part of his anti-China efforts in 2020, he promised during his campaign to block the TikTok ban if he was elected. Despite that pledge, he will also be battling against members of his own party, as numerous representatives and senators in both the Democratic and Republican parties support the efforts.

Fact of the Day (Reader's Digest): The largest one-day temperature hike ever recorded was in Loma, Montana, from January 14 to January 15 in 1972. On those days, the temps climbed from -54 degrees F to 49 degrees within 24 hours-- a 103-degree rise.

Quote of the Day: Maturity is not when we start speaking big things, it is when we start understanding small things. (Unknown)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Ambigram (noun)- An ambigram is an image of a written word or phrase that is intended or able to be oriented in either of two ways for viewing or reading.

In a Sentence: Angel started taking calligraphy classes to learn how to create ambigrams and other fun designs that can be read both upside down and right side up.