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DARTMOUTH — Last month the U.S. House of Representatives showed rare bipartisan support when it passed legislation that could ultimately ban TikTok in the United States. As the bill heads to the Senate, The Light visited UMass Dartmouth to ask students what they thought about the future of the popular video-sharing app.
Of the 170 million U.S. users on TikTok, most are young people who watch entertainment, news, or shopping videos on the platform. But lawmakers have expressed concerns about the app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, alleging that the Chinese Communist Party could be exerting influence in the United States through promoted content.
Most student users at UMass Dartmouth said they weren’t worried about their data privacy. They said they are often scrolling for multiple hours on TikTok each day, but that the app is just one of many using their data for insights. Their usage is similar to recent surveys that show, on average, adult TikTok users spend about an hour on the app each day.
TikTok’s rapid growth has made it an important part of how young people find news and socialize — and many observers see the potential ban as an important election-year issue.
President Biden has said he would sign the bill if it reaches his desk, while Trump has flipped his position since last year.
The Light asked UMass Dartmouth students whether a candidate’s stance on this issue could impact how — or whether — they vote in a highly-charged election.
What did students have to say? Find out in the latest in the We Asked, You Answered series from reporter Eleonora Bianchi.
Email Eleonora Bianchi at ebianchi@newbedfordlight.org and Colin Hogan at chogan@newbedfordlight.org
