Social media erupted with disdain as if users were preparing for a funeral after the Supreme Court agreed to maintain a federal law to ban TikTok on Friday.
“The only reason a lot of us Americans have not crashed out with what we have been going through is because of TikTok,” influencer Jasmine Ashley posted, praising the platform while criticizing its competitors.
The TikTok ban will begin Sunday, unless the app switches ownership from its China-based parent company ByteDance to American ownership, the Associated Press reported. But ByteDance has said it’s not going anywhere.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The Department of Justice previously argued TikTok posed a national security risk, but didn’t provide proof of information breaches happening.
The deadline to find government-approved ownership comes days ahead of President Joe Biden leaving office and President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. The Associated Press reported Friday Biden won’t enforce the ban, leaving its fate in the hands of Trump, who said he discussed the matter with China’s president Xi Jinping this afternoon.
Meanwhile, TikTok influencers are recapping their major moments on the platform and thanking their followers for showing support. Other users didn’t hesitate to explain what the ban would mean across social media and how it directly impacts Americans.
According to the Associated Press, TikTok has 170 million users in the U.S.
One Atlanta content creator has been at the forefront of the legal battle over the potential ban of the app. Atlanta business owner Paul Tran was one of several social media creators who filed suit against the U.S. government last year to stop the ban.
Tran runs a skincare company called Love & Pebble, which he founded with his wife, Lynda Truong, while working as a pharmacist for Delta Air Lines about five years ago.
Tran and Truong started posting videos to TikTok in 2021 for marketing purposes, and their videos eventually caught the attention of producers on the television show “Shark Tank.” Though they didn’t secure an investment from the show’s hosts, their appearance sparked a surge in sales for Love & Pebble.
Tran quit his job to go full-time with the company in 2022. In 2023, the couple started selling their products through TikTok Shop, the app’s integrated e-commerce platform.
About 90% of the company’s sales now come through TikTok Shop, making the platform an essential part of Love & Pebble’s bottom line.
“TikTok is our main platform where we’ve grown our business, grown our American dream,” Tran told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution in December. “To rip it away, that would be devastating to us. There’s heavy collateral. This app is so ingrained into the culture now.”
Tran traveled to D.C. last week for the Supreme Court hearing on whether the platform would be banned, which he said was a surreal experience. He’s not surprised the justices upheld the law — he knew it would be an uphill battle. The outcome is “no longer in our hands,” he said.
Love & Pebble products are sold through several retailers, including Urban Outfitters and Nordstrom, but physical sales pale in comparison to those made through TikTok.
“I’m going to have to reach out to them to say, ‘Hey, you guys want a little bit more? Like, a lot more? Like 90% more?’” Tran said.
Tran said he also needs to find a way to slim down company operations to stay afloat until he and his wife can figure out a sales channel that will work for them. Being a licensed pharmacist gives him a fallback plan if he cannot keep the company sustainable, he said.
While some TikTok users utilize the app for business purposes, others say they will miss the community they’ve built.
“The government does not realize that a lot of us have not real-deal lost our minds with the way grocery prices is, gas prices is, rent prices, just to do anything ...because we could come to TikTok and get a laugh,” Jasmine Ashley posted on TikTok.
“I can get on here and someone else is feeling how I’m feeling, and we can talk to each other ... If this app don’t open up ... y’all gon’ find out what crashed out is,” she warned.
Though many are concerned Sunday will be the last day the app will be up and running for U.S. users, TikTok has also challenged the U.S. federal ban, claiming it’s unconstitutional and silences American citizens.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
If the ban were to go into effect, it wouldn’t be the first time a country blocked the app over national security concerns. In June 2020, India banned TikTok, which had about 200 million users, along with dozens of other Chinese apps.
Denish Shah, the founding director of the Social Media Intelligence Lab at Georgia State University, said there were some lessons learned from the ban in India. It proved that consumer habits are persistent — if people get used to watching bite-sized videos, they’ll flock to the next-best platform that offers them, like YouTube or Instagram, both of which have integrated short-form video players.
If content creators continue to put out engaging content on the alternative platforms, they can rebuild their followings.
“But it’s not going to happen overnight,” Shah said. “And obviously it’s not going to be exactly the same.”
Shah isn’t so much concerned for consumers. There are so many competitors out there to fulfill the need for bite-sized videos. But small businesses, artists and content creators who rely on the platform for their livelihood will experience short-term pain, and many of them may not have the bandwidth or financial resources to withstand the transition period from one platform to another.
