Overview:
Influencers from across the state share their thoughts on TikTok's demise as a result of Congress' ban and Trump's decision to delay the ban.
TikTok, a video-based social media platform used by a third of U.S. adults, has been vacillating in and out of access for Americans. This is due to the recent Supreme Court case TikTok v. Garland, which ruled that Congress’s law requiring ByteDance, a Chinese company, to sell the social media platform or cease domestic operations doesn’t violate the First Amendment.
For Fort Collins influencers Shayla McCormick and Gabrielle Judge, loss of income is just the tip of the iceberg. “I don’t necessarily want TikTok to be banned, but I do understand why maybe some changes have to be made,” McCormick said. “And obviously I use the app, so I’m guilty if they’re sharing all of our information.”
Following the Supreme Court verdict on Jan. 17, Trump released an executive order that extended the period of TikTok for 75 days on his first day in office, with plans to resolve the law. The TikTok ban, originally signed into law by President Trump in 2020, was implemented two and a half hours before the law required it to go offline on Jan. 19.
However, access to the app returned the same day after less than 15 hours with a disclosure that paid homage to President Trump. TikTok said to its American users, “Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”
A reporter asked him why he had a change of heart about TikTok, and Trump said, “Because I got to use it.”
“Trump did ban TikTok in 2020 because of security concerns with China, which was fair at the time since it was a new app and we didn’t know what was going on,” said Gabrielle Judge, a TikTok influencer. “Since then, Oracle got involved to regulate TikTok’s data storage in Austin, Texas. Then Trump ignored the ban, similar to what Biden did last weekend. It’s hard to say who changed their mind.”
Oracle is a software company that now stores the majority of US user data on TikTok. The partnership of Oracle and TikTok was meant to assuage concerns about the Chinese government and its potential access to our data.
Despite these reassurances, McCormick, a DIY and domestic life influencer, believes there is merit in data and cybersecurity concerns. She argued, though, that TikTok is a critical source of information.
“I know a lot of people go to YouTube when they’re looking things up like, ‘How do I fix a light fixture?’ I never go to YouTube; I always go to TikTok,” McCormick said.“We just bought a car a couple weeks ago, so I did a bunch of research on TikTok. I didn’t even feel like I needed to go to a car dealership because I did so much research by watching videos of people reviewing cars.”
A pressing issue for McCormick is the navigation of brand deals, given the difference in how she is paid per view on TikTok versus Instagram. Without the ability to cross-post on both platforms, there will be a significant cut in pay for the new mother.
“I think a lot of brands, at least in my experience, have kind of slowed down on doing brand deals the last two months because they want to see what happens with the TikTok ban,” McCormick said. “So any brand deals I’ve been doing have just been Instagram-based for the last couple months.”
McCormick, who has over one million TikTok followers and a comparatively small Instagram following of 150,000, uploads her content to both platforms. She uses the editing platform CapCut, which is also owned by Bytedance, the same company that owns TikTok, whose future is now uncertain as well.
Judge, an influencer known for speeches on work-life balance, contends with similar threats to her career in light of CapCut’s uncertain future.
“There are other alternatives, but with CapCut they have the AI feature done really well and it’s affordable,” Judge said. “And that’s something that is severely impacting me because I now have to use VPNs to get around for CapCut while the process of editing burns me out.”
Judge, a CSU graduate who studied computer information systems, identified other trends that foreshadowed the ban’s implementation. She mentioned the Cambridge Analytica Scandal, where Facebook harvested data for a British consulting firm in pursuit of identifying swing states and households in the U.S. without informed consent.
“Watching these cycles happen over and over again is really weird,” Judge said.
Trump’s request for an injunction did not address the quandary of TikTok being a “national security threat,” as claimed by Senior United States Circuit Judge Douglas Ginsberg, versus the infringement on free speech. Instead of addressing the merits of TikTok’s petition, Trump pushed for a diplomatic agreement rather than a legal one.
As for what the future holds, there is scant information that can guarantee TikTok’s status in our nation. While there are alternative applications for TikTok, such as RedNote or Neptune, both McCormick and Judge find TikTok and its algorithm to be more unique and addictive.
But for now, influencers like McCormick and Judge are left in limbo. A platform so integral to discourse, relatability, advice and so much more has the potential to be stripped away—leaving many consumers and influencers alike in a new landscape of social media.
“I think it’s sad, and it’s kind of the end of an era,” McCormick said. “But it’ll be interesting to see what happens.”
