What do Americans REALLY think of the looming TikTok ban? trends now

Americans are divided over banning TikTok - with many saying it violates their freedom of expression and others warning it corrupts young people and is being used as a Chinese spy tool.

Congress is currently debating the bill - introduced in December - that would move to President Joe Biden if passed, who will then have the final say if the app poses a threat to national security. If Biden determines it does, TikTok will be removed from app marketplaces and become unusable on smartphones where it is downloaded.

Gavin Dees, a TikToker with over one million followers but would not disclose how much money he makes, told DailyMail.com: 'Fighting for TikTok is not fighting for an app. It's fighting for the right to speak. 

'It's fighting for even people I may not fully believe the same way. I believe in your right to believe that and to speak about that so. And TikTok allows for that in a way we've never seen.'

However, on the other side of the aisle are those who favor the ban - A CBS poll shows 61 percent of adults want to see the app disappear.

Joe Gagliese with Viral Nation, a company representing over 200 TikTok influencers, told DailyMail.com that before TikTok, people relied on major media companies for news, events and entertainment.

'They owned all the eyeballs,' he said. 'Social media divested that completely.'

However, parents are focused on the harm TikTok is causing children. 

Several lawsuits filed by parents against ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, claim the app is illegally collecting data of minors in violation of child privacy laws.

On March 25, 2022, the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois approved a $1.1 million settlement with ByteDance to resolve claims that TikTok collected children's data without consent and sold it to third parties without parental consent. 

Other parents claim TikTok is opening up children to predators. 

Kimberly Viola, a New York resident, told WKBW that her 10-year-old daughter was exposed to sexually explicit material from a predator.

'What's happening are these predators are, once they become on your friend's list, they are able to expose themselves to you,' explained Viola. 

'So we had a predator that was able to encourage my daughter and actually show my daughter self-inflicting harmful images, but also encourage her on a sexual platform.' 

TikTok has over one billion monthly active users worldwide, and 150 million of them live in the US, waiting for the bill's verdict.

The Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act (ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act) would ban any social media company operations in or under the influence of China and Russia. 

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), who introduced the bill in Senate, said Chinese law meant the app's owner, ByteDance, was required to hand data to the Chinese Communist Party.

This month, the Biden Administration threatened to ban TikTok unless its Chinese owner sells its shares in the app.

And on March 23, TikTok's CEO, Shou Zi Chew, was grilled by Congress for a grueling five hours over data security and harmful content.

'I think, as far as Congress, the privacy issue is valid,' Dees said.

'But my problem with the whole thing, what made me feel some way about it, as we're assuming that TikTok, or this company [ByteDance], is acting in a way that other platforms aren't, like Twitter and Facebook.

'Things [about Twitter and Facebook] have been proven, so now, the hypocrisy is that you don't care about privacy.

'[Congress cares] about something deeper about this platform, even though you may be talking like here about privacy and data, and all of this different stuff, like there's other platforms that have been doing this for years decade.'

Dees also said that while the narrative of TikTok is it is a child's app, at least 60 percent of his followers are over 34.