https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-tiktok-content-creators-warn-followers-find-them-instagram-youtube-2024-12-07/ American content creators on TikTok asked followers to subscribe to their channels on rival platforms like Meta-owned (META.O) Instagram and Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) YouTube after a federal appeals court ruled that the social media app could be banned if it is not sold to a U.S.-based company by Jan. 19.
TikTok has become a major U.S. digital force as it has grown to 170 million U.S. users, especially younger people drawn to its short, often irreverent videos. It has sucked away advertisers from some of the largest U.S. players and added commerce platform TikTok Shop, which has become a marketplace for small businesses.
The U.S. Congress, fearing TikTok's Chinese owners are gathering information about American consumers, has passed a law requiring its owner, Chinese-backed ByteDance, to divest its TikTok in the U.S. or face a ban. On Friday, a federal appeals court upheld the law.
Threats by politicians and others to TikTok have been building for years, leading some users to brush off recent threats. That appeared to change on Friday, with the prospect of a ban in just six weeks. A Supreme Court appeal is still possible.
"For the first time I'm realizing that a lot of what I worked for could disappear," Chris Mowrey, a Democratic social media influencer with 470,000 TikTok followers, told Reuters. "I don't think it's been talked about enough how damaging it will be from an economic standpoint for small businesses and creators."
