TikTok is a popular social media app. Created in China under the parent company ByteDance, TikTok allows users to post and watch video content, much of which is relatively short (a few seconds to a few minutes, although users can post a video up to 60 minutes long). Tiktok largely seems to fill the void left by Vine's demise in the 2010s.
In the United States, TikTok has also been the subject of numerous controversies. Similar to other social media platforms, TikTok's algorithm has been criticized for prioritizing content which garners the greatest number of views, regardless of its effect on the viewer, and for its lack of safeguards for children ( a particularly notorious and heinous example being the "TikTok suicide," search at your own discretion). The United States has also alleged that TikTok harvests users' data to share with the Chinese government ("Hey! That's our data to sell to advertisers!")
As a result of these controversies, the Biden Administration passed a law banning Chinese ownership of TikTok. If, by January 19th, 2025, TikTok isn't sold to an American company, it will be banned in the United States. Whether the law will hold up in court, and whether it will be supported by the incoming Trump Administration, remains to be seen. It seems like a dubious prospect at best.