As public support for a TikTok ban continues to decline, many U.S. adults are skeptical or unsure such a ban will happen, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted July 15-Aug. 4, 2024.
The share of Americans who support the U.S. government banning TikTok now stands at 32%. That’s down from 38% in fall 2023 and 50% in March 2023.
Meanwhile, 28% of Americans oppose a ban, up from 22% in March 2023. And the share who say they are uncertain whether the government should ban the platform has risen from 28% in March 2023 to 39% now.
These findings come as TikTok’s fate in the United States continues to be uncertain. President Joe Biden signed a bill in April that requires ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to sell it or face a ban in the U.S. Challenges to this law are now headed to the courts.
Below we’ll look more closely at:
Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand Americans’ views about a potential TikTok ban in the United States. For this analysis, we surveyed 10,658 adults from July 15 to Aug. 4, 2024. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take surveys regularly. This kind of recruitment gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection. Surveys were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other factors. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.
Here are the questions used for this analysis, the topline and the survey methodology.
Views of a TikTok ban by political party
Even amid the decline in support for banning TikTok, views remain divided by political party.
Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are far more likely than Democrats and Democratic leaners to support a ban (42% vs. 24%).
Still, support for a ban has dropped substantially within each party. In March 2023, 60% of Republicans and 43% of Democrats said they supported the government banning TikTok.
The partisan differences that persist today are also present in other questions we’ve asked about TikTok. For example, a May 2023 Center survey found that Republicans were more likely than Democrats to view TikTok as a national security threat.
Views of a ban by use of TikTok
With U.S. adults’ use of TikTok on the rise, we’ve also been tracking how views of a ban differ depending on whether people use the platform. As was true in previous surveys, attitudes vary dramatically:
- TikTok users are far more likely to oppose (61%) than support (10%) a ban, with 29% unsure.
- Those who don’t use TikTok are about as likely to support a ban (42%) as to be uncertain (43%), while 15% are opposed.
Support for a ban has decreased within both groups between March 2023 and now. Among U.S. adults who don’t use TikTok, support has fallen sharply, from 60% in March 2023 to 42%. And among users, it’s fallen from 19% to 10% over that period.
At the same time, those who don’t use TikTok have become more uncertain about a ban.
Do Americans think a TikTok ban will happen?
For the first time, we measured public views on the likelihood of TikTok getting banned in the U.S. Americans are more likely to believe this will not happen than to think it will.
Half of Americans think it’s very or somewhat unlikely that TikTok will be banned in the U.S.
By contrast, 31% say a ban is at least somewhat likely, including 6% who believe it is very likely.
Another 19% say they are unsure whether TikTok will be banned.
Views by political party
Even as Republicans are more likely to support a ban, they’re just as likely as Democrats to doubt it will happen. About half of adults in each party say a ban is very or somewhat unlikely, while roughly three-in-ten say it’s very or somewhat likely.
Views by use of TikTok
There are only modest differences based on whether people use the platform. While 54% of U.S. adult TikTok users say it’s unlikely that the platform will be banned, 48% of nonusers say the same.
Views by attitudes toward a ban
Similar shares of Americans who support and who oppose a ban think it is unlikely to happen. In both groups, people are more skeptical than not:
- 54% of those who support a ban think it’s unlikely, 37% think it’s likely and 9% are unsure.
- 56% of those who oppose a ban think it’s unlikely, 31% say it’s likely and 13% are unsure.
Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis, the topline and the survey methodology.
