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Participants hold signs in support of TikTok at a press conference in front of the US Capitol on March 12, 2024, in Washington, DC. House Democrats and TikTok creators and business owners held the press conference to express concerns about House Republican legislation that would force owners of the popular Chinese social media app to sell the company. platform or face a ban in the US.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
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Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Participants hold signs in support of TikTok at a press conference in front of the US Capitol on March 12, 2024, in Washington, DC. House Democrats and TikTok creators and business owners held the press conference to express concerns about House Republican legislation that would force owners of the popular Chinese social media app to sell the company. platform or face a ban in the US.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The House is preparing for a vote Wednesday on bipartisan legislation that could lead to a ban on TikTok, one of the most used apps in the world with about 170 million users in the United States alone.
The prospect of a possible ban has outraged thousands of content creators who rely on the site as their main source of income.
Amber Estenson, a 42-year-old content creator also known as “That Midwest Mom,” went viral on TikTok two years ago when she uploaded one of her quirky Minnesota “salad” concoctions. Its ingredients (Snickers bars, apples, gelatin, and Cool Whip) made it a viral sensation.
With a million followers on TikTok, Estenson said she is worried about a possible ban in the United States and called the site her “lifeline.”
“A ban is unrealistic and absurd. For me personally, it would mean a loss of income… It would mean I would lose a million followers,” Estenson said.
Other TikTokers use their platform as a way to give back. William McCoy, known as Izzy White, is a former drug dealer and ex-felon from Baltimore. He said he uses his platform to help the homeless in his community.
“Without TikTok, basically all the mouths I feed every day wouldn’t be fed every day,” McCoy said.
Lawmakers from both parties have supported a bill that would force TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to ditch the app within six months of the law’s enactment or face a nationwide ban. .
China’s involvement in the app has raised national security concerns among both Democrats and Republicans.
But Jameel Jaffer, a civil liberties lawyer at Columbia University, said a ban is not the solution to this particular problem.
“TikTok is not the only platform that collects that type of information. Many other platforms collect that information, including American platforms, and that data is then made available to data brokers who then sell it to foreign governments,” Jaffer said.
As things stand, government employees at the federal level and in several states are mostly prohibited from using TikTok on government-issued devices. In May 2023, Montana became the first state to ban the app on all personal devices. (A judge blocked the law in November 2023, before the ban could take effect. The state He has since appealed the decision..)
TikTok has maintained that it now uses a separate entity from US-based ByteDance to store the data of its American users, but the reassurance has not been enough to convince many of the platform’s skeptics.
The bill, which passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week with unanimous approval, appears to have the support it needs to pass the House.
House Speaker Mike Johnson supports the measure. telling reporters this week that TikTok is “actively undermining our economy and security.”
President Biden has said that would be willing to sign the legislation if it reaches your desk.
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