Week 2: Diving Deeper Into Prior Research

Since it’s spring break, this week I took things a bit slower and looked back on my Senior Project Proposal, specifically the Prior Research section. I wanted to dive deeper into my sources, review methodologies, and find new sources to add to my bibliography. 

Last week, I said I would investigate the TikTok ban bill, and I did just that. From my current understanding, if the company that currently owns TikTok, ByteDance, sells the company, it will not be banned in the U.S., if they do not, however, then the app will be banned. TikTok isn’t facing a possible ban because of its algorithms or its effect on young minds, it’s facing the ban because American Legislators fear it is controlled by the Chinese Communist government.  I mention the reason it may be banned because it tells me that the ban is not so pertinent to my specific project. Additionally, the ban would not affect Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, or X meaning that the algorithmic issues I am looking at will not be impacted if the ban occurs. Even if the ban impacts my research, the app would not be officially banned until six months after the bill’s passing, which is long after the timeframe of this project ends.