The creators of TikTok were not surprised when they heard that president Joe Biden have signed a bill that could lead to a TikTok ban, but they are nearly unanimous in their belief that the federal government is wrong to move the legislation forward.
For almost four years, since July 2020, a possible TikTok ban has been considered by members of the federal government. A bipartisan bill to ban TikTok in the US was first proposed in December 2022, and the version just signed into law has been in the works since March. It’s not an immediate ban – it includes a nine-month deadline by which the company must sell to a US-approved owner or face a ban – and TikTok CEO Shou Chew says the company will challenge the decision in court .
The app has been the subject of months of gossip about the bill, with creators and users outraged by Congress’ focus on TikTok instead of other issues popular with the app’s user base, which is young.
A video from three days ago from popular New York creator Dutch de Carvalho, which has nearly 8 million views and 2 million likes, discusses a list of things Carvalho says Americans don’t have: affordable housing, student loan forgiveness, a higher minimum wages and free Covid-19 tests among them.
“Can we at least watch videos on an app of people doing fun things and learn more about the world around us?” says the video’s creator. “No. But don’t forget: we listen to you,” he says from the government’s perspective.
Three TikTok creators with large followings shared their feelings with NBC News about the legislation and how the user base will continue to react to it.
“I don’t think TikTok is going away,” Marcus DiPaola said. DiPaola breaks news on TikTok to an audience of nearly 4 million followers. He said the U.S. will have to show evidence in court of the main concern underlying the bill: that TikTok could share U.S. user data with the Chinese government, or that TikTok is recommending Chinese government propaganda to U.S. users. TikTok has denied both.
“They have to prove that they’re actively doing it, and I don’t see that happening,” DiPaola said.
Still, DiPaola said, the proposed ban has stoked fears about the app.
“You see that because every video about banning TikTok blows up,” he said. “It’s not just makers; they are users who don’t create anything. It’s the people with small businesses who depend on TikTok for advertising.”
TikTok introduced TikTok Shop in September, allowing an explosion of small businesses to sell their products through the app and giving creators a cut for advertising the products.
AB Burns-Tucker, who has more than 700,000 followers on TikTok, told NBC News that she too is concerned that a TikTok ban would disrupt and disadvantage small business owners in the U.S. who use the platform to advertise, especially Black people and minorities. companies. Burns-Tucker, a paralegal, built an audience in part by covering current events in the language of African-American English.
“This app provides a livelihood for us, people of color, where we didn’t have opportunities before,” Burns-Tucker said. “We’re going to be forced to figure out how to pivot over the next nine months.”
Heading into a presidential election, Burns-Tucker added that this move could further discourage voters and contribute to lingering distrust in the federal government.
“We as users, as American citizens and voters, called our representatives and said, ‘We don’t want a TikTok ban,’” Burns-Tucker said, referring to TikTok’s recent call to action that prompted users to reach out with their representatives and senators about the bill. “They made it seem like we were being controlled by TikTok to bully them.”
Jules Terpak, who has over 350,000 followers on TikTok, thinks the debate around banning TikTok will continue indefinitely, but she also doesn’t think it will make or break the 2024 presidential election.
“Trump originally proposed this move in 2020,” Terpak said. “I think ultimately people will remember it and it won’t have much impact on Biden versus Trump.”
Terpak urges creators to diversify their platforms and revenue streams, knowing that the future of every social media app is uncertain, especially TikTok.
“I assume that selling or banning TikTok will be a never-ending conversation until one of the two happens,” she added. “Even if this bill somehow doesn’t pass, I expect the topic will come up again and again.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
