Clock ticks on possible TikTok US ban

AP:

Will TikTok be banned this month?

That’s the pressing question keeping creators and small business owners in anxious limbo as they await a decision that could upend their livelihoods. The fate of the popular app will be decided by the Supreme Court, which will hear arguments on January 10 over a law requiring TikTok to break ties with its Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, or face a US ban.

At the heart of the case is whether the law violates the First Amendment with TikTok and its creator allies arguing that it does. The US government, which sees the platform as a national security risk, says it does not.

For creators, the TikTok doomsday scenarios are nothing new since President-elect Donald Trump first tried to ban the platform through executive order during his first term. But despite Trump’s recent statements indicating he now wants TikTok to stick around, the prospect of a ban has never been as immediate as it is now with the Supreme Court serving as the final arbiter.

If the government prevailed, as it did in a lower court, TikTok says it would shut down its US platform by January 19, leaving creators scrambling to redefine their futures.

“A lot of my other creative friends, we’re all like freaking out. But I’m staying calm,” said Gillian Johnson, who benefitted financially from TikTok’s live feature and rewards programme, which helped creators generate higher revenue potential by posting high-quality original content. The 22-year-old filmmaker and recent college graduate uses her TikTok earnings to help fund her equipment for projects such as her short films Gambit and Awaken! My Neighbor.

Many creators have taken to TikTok to voice their frustrations. Online communities risk being disrupted, and the economic fallout could especially be devastating for those have left full-time jobs to build careers and incomes around their content.

Johnson says she knows creators who have been thinking about quitting, but Nicola Bartoli, the vice president of sales at The Influencer Marketing Factory, said the creators she has interreacted with have not been too worried.

“I believe a good chunk think it is not going to happen,” said Bartoli, whose agency works to pair influencers and brands.

Despite fears about the fate of TikTok, industry analysts note creators are generally avoiding making any big changes, like abandoning platform, until something actually happens.

“I’m anxious but also trying to be hopeful in a weird way,” said Brandon Hurst.

A year after joining TikTok, Hurst, who sells plants, said his sales doubled, outpacing the traction he’d struggled to gain on Instagram. He built his clientèle through the live feature on TikTok, which has helped him sell more than 77,000 plants.

Billion Dollar Boy, a New York-based influencer marketing agency, has advised creators to download all of their TikTok content into a personal portfolio, but until the deadline of January 19 comes around, creators should continue to post regularly on TikTok, which has 170 million month US users and remains highly effective in reaching audiences.