As of: March 14, 2024, 10:21 a.m
Comments
Press
Split
US Representative Robert Garcia (Democrat of California) at a press conference against the TikTok ban in front of the US Capitol, Washington DC, on March 12, 2024. © Annabelle Gordon/Imago
The popular app TikTok is about to close in the USA.
A ban on the app was passed in the House of Representatives.
What a TikTok ban means for the US.
Washington DC - Small business owners, educators, activists and young people who use TikTok reacted with dismay on Wednesday (March 13) after the House of Representatives passed a proposal to ban the popular app.
Many argue that the app is playing an increasingly important role in the US national economy and public life.
“Banning TikTok would take down many small businesses, including mine,” said Brandon Hurst, 30, a Los Angeles plant dealer who blames the app for boosting flagging sales.
"These representatives and senators don't understand that what they do hurts more than just the people they call 'content creators.'
It would also hurt small businesses.”
The TikTok ban sparks horror among small business owners in the USA
Dozens of TikTok followers gathered outside the Capitol on Wednesday to protest the measure, which passed the House with overwhelming support but faces an uncertain fate in the Senate.
Among them was Gigi Gonzalez, a financial educator from Chicago who said a TikTok ban would ruin her financially.
“It would eliminate my biggest source of income,” said Gonzalez, 34, who makes most of her living through brand deals and digital courses on TikTok, as well as speaking engagements organized through TikTok.
Before her TikTok career, Gonzalez said she primarily tried to reach people through webinars, which were sparsely attended.
Now she reaches millions of people, many of whom buy her courses and books.
Read The Washington Post for free for four weeks
Your quality ticket from washingtonpost.com: Get exclusive research and 200+ stories free for four weeks.
TikTok ban already in force in Montana – wave of plaintiffs oppose the ban
“TikTok offers more good than harm than any other social media platform,” added Heather DiRocco.
The artist and “content creator” from Montana makes her money by testing products in her videos and earning money through the platform’s “Creativity Program”.
The social media personality is paid based on views of their videos longer than a minute.
DiRocco is one of several plaintiffs seeking to overturn Montana's first-in-the-nation ban on TikTok, which was set to take effect in January but was blocked by a federal judge.
Thousands of content creators earn their living on TikTok
“I couldn’t replicate the money I make on TikTok on any other platform,” DiRocco said.
If a national ban passes Congress and President Joe Biden follows through on his promise to sign it, she said, "I will lose my greatest platform as a 'content creator,' which will be taken away from me without compensation or compensation."
Since rebranding in 2018 under the name TikTok, the app has become one of the most popular social media platforms, with 170 million monthly users in the United States alone.
Hundreds of thousands of “content creators” make a living on the app, which has made artists and influencers like Lil Nas X, Doja Cat and Charli D'Amelio famous overnight.
TikTok popular advertising medium for American companies – TikTok as an education center
More than 7 million American companies market or sell their products on TikTok, the company said.
TikTok generated $14.7 billion in revenue for small business owners and contributed $24.2 billion to U.S. gross domestic product last year, according to a study released Wednesday by Oxford Economics, a financial advisory firm.
The study also found that TikTok supports at least 224,000 American jobs, with the greatest economic impact in California, Texas, Florida, New York and Illinois.
In addition to its economic importance, TikTok has also become a major educational center.
Through the #LearnOnTikTok initiative, the company has collaborated with more than 800 public figures, publishers, educational institutions and professionals to integrate educational materials into the app.
TikTok also provides grants to educators and nonprofits that produce educational content.
TikTok as a tool for “interest representation” – Politicians have no idea what TikTok actually is
“Both sides recognize that TikTok is an important tool that many, especially young people, use for education, advocacy and organizing,” said Annie Wu Henry, a digital strategist and content writer.
“It’s also very obvious that many of these politicians don’t fully understand what the app they’re trying to ban is, or even why they’re trying to ban it.”
Even as TikTok has become increasingly important economically, the company has drawn criticism from politicians of both parties.
Politicians are particularly concerned about the content offered to the app's users and the parent company's ties to China.
On Wednesday, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Tex.) posted on X that “a vote against this bill is a vote for the Chinese Communist Party.”
ByteDance would have to sell TikTok to an American company to circumvent the ban
Supporters of the House measure say they have no intention of banning the app.
Instead, the measure would require TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance, to be sold to a U.S. company within 180 days.
If ByteDance refuses to sell, U.S.-based app stores and web hosting services would be prohibited from making TikTok available to the public.
Opponents of the measure are skeptical.
“It is unrealistic that TikTok’s parent company would be able to sell the app in the United States within six months, which is the time frame the administration mandates in this bill,” said Nora Benavidez, a civil rights attorney and free speech and senior advisor at Free Press, a nonpartisan organization focused on protecting civil liberties.
“Given this likely scenario, the penalties they would face in the event of such an event would result in a ban from TikTok.”
A TikTok ban would particularly affect and disadvantage young people and the LGBTQ community
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), who voted against the measure, told a protester rally Tuesday that "any ban on TikTok is not just a ban on free speech - they are literally causing great harm to our lives." national economy.”
“Small business owners across the country are using TikTok to grow our economy.
Some of these creators and business owners depend solely on TikTok for their income and work,” Garcia said.
“Forging ahead with a process that could ban their form of work – particularly for young people in this country – is misguided.”
Garcia added that the app is an important connecting point for various social groups, including the LGBTQ+ community.
"As an openly gay person, it's a place where I get so much LGBT information and where gay creators share news," he said.
“TikTok is a place of representation, and banning TikTok also means taking a voice and a platform away from people of color and queer artists who have made TikTok their home.”
TikTok as a lifeline for disabled people during the corona pandemic
Tiffany Yu, 35, a disability activist in Los Angeles, said banning the app would be particularly harmful to disabled people.
The app serves as a lifeline for many, which became particularly evident during the isolation caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Public spaces continue to be a risk zone for vulnerable people.
“TikTok helped us find each other.
Losing TikTok would tear us out of that social fabric,” Yu said, adding that TikTok has become an economic lifeline for a group whose “unemployment rate is twice that of our able-bodied peers.”
The House bill would "take away the right to free speech of millions of Americans, and that's really not OK," said Carly Goddard, a content creator who is also a plaintiff in Montana's TikTok ban lawsuit.
“On TikTok, you see… what’s going on in our world,” Goddard said.
And “there is more to fear in our world than banning an app.”
About the author
Taylor Lorenz
is a columnist at The Washington Post covering technology and online culture.
Before joining the Post, she was a technology reporter at The New York Times.
She was previously a technology reporter at The Atlantic and The Daily Beast.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on March 14, 2024 at the “Washingtonpost.com” - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.