If President Donald Trump can’t negotiate a deal to keep TikTok on the U.S. market before April 5, the government will ban the popular social-media app nationwide.
For all the problems TikTok may pose — whether real or fake — it is one of the few alternatives to Meta’s domination of the public square, and the government ought to protect it based on that fact alone.
According to a study done by Morgan Stanley, Meta would be the biggest beneficiary of a TikTok ban in the United States. This study found Meta could capture an extra 30 to 60 cents per share in 2026. Similarly, Morgan Stanley found YouTube could see a massive increase in profits if TikTok is banned.
Meta — which owns Facebook and Instagram — has taken up a large portion of the social media marketplace for years. While Meta has promised to remove partisan “fact-checking” from its platform, the company has been undeniably involved in suppressing information, particularly regarding politics.
Recently, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted his company suppressed conservative voices when it came to immigration and gender.
“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it,” Zuckerberg wrote. “I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any administration in either direction — and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again.”
Because Instagram and Facebook took up so much of the social media market, some people may have never seen information that counteracted the corporations’ narrative surrounding these issues. With a TikTok ban in place, these companies would have even more power over the public, with little competition.
Whether or not the company is openly involved in censorship now, recent history proves allowing companies such as Meta to control what Americans think and feel can have serious consequences.
Whenever one company gains complete control over the spread of ideas, it can be dangerous, as that company has the power to either uplift or censor ideas at whim.
In principle, there is no problem with wanting TikTok to be owned by an American company. The government should work to make that a reality, provided it allows TikTok to continue running in the meantime and prevents the takeover of the public square by other large social media companies.
Rather than focusing on the perceived national security threat that TikTok may or may not pose, the government should take stock of the domestic threat that comes from companies like YouTube and Facebook gaining outsize control of the flow of information.
It is up to individuals whether they want to risk giving information to China by using TikTok. We’d be better off focusing our time and energies on America’s biggest problems. TikTok isn’t one of them.
Skye Graham is a sophomore studying history.
