TikTok Ban Contingency Plan: What You Need to Know

Written by Coegi's Savannah Westbrock and Stephanie Dwyer

The News

The threat to ban TikTok is coming to a head as the U.S. government takes aim at what has become the most popular smartphone app in the country over threats to U.S. national security. Although talks around banning the beloved app isn’t anything new and still seems like an unlikely outcome, what does seem likely is that Congress and the Biden administration are floating other possible TikTok -related remedies that would ultimately impact businesses and users.

The Big Picture

The primary rationale for a ban of the app stems from the concern that 字节跳动 , the Beijing-based parent company of TikTok and its Chinese-equivalent Douyin, could be required to hand over American user data by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Similarly, lawmakers across several countries have expressed concerns the app could be used to spread propaganda. Jameel Jaffer of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia notes that the First Amendment includes a right for citizens to receive information — even, in fact, foreign propaganda — which, in turn, would mean that banning TikTok wouldn’t only affect speech from the app, but also speech from the users on the platform.?

That being said, to go as far as to say that banning TikTok is a violation of the First Amendment wouldn’t be wholly accurate. The ban would satisfy scrutiny over the First Amendment, so much so that we would likely see additional constitutional challenges similar to the one raised by a judge who blocked former President Donald Trump’s attempt to ban Chinese app WeChat in 2020.?

Former Obama official Tim Wu offered an alternate reasoning for the attempted TikTok bans, one that has likely crossed your mind: banning the social media platform isn’t about real tech reform. Its main objective is to punish the Chinese government and diminish its global influence. In short, this ban would serve as a short-term fix,solving mostly hypothetical concerns without resolving an issue that’s been present since the conception and rise of Web 2.0.

Where Things Stand

In April, Montana became the first US state passing legislation for a full ban of TikTok, joining over two-dozen others who have limited TikTok access for government employees. While critics like the ACLU are skeptical of the proposed language’s constitutionality, Montana has joined Canada and a number of EU nations challenging the Chinese-owned app on its data privacy and relationship to the Chinese government.?

Reading Between The Lines

The enormous scale of the app’s presence and popularity in the US could pose a challenge. Surveys indicate that the public remains mostly divided, with younger Americans asserting Congress is out of touch, the ACLU arguing the ban would present a violation of the right to Free Speech, and more than twice as many Americans support the U.S. government banning TikTok as oppose it (50% vs. 22%), though a sizable share (28%) are not sure.

What’s at Stake for Brands & Marketers

Any potential ban would be a significant shift in the current social landscape. An array of small businesses and marketers have expressed their concerns about the more than $11 billion in U.S. ad revenue expected to land on the platform by 2024. Even among talks of a national ban, marketers increased their spend on TikTok, citing the power of the platform’s engagement. This isn’t surprising as it remains the dominant app for consumers between the ages of 16 and 25 who are less concerned about the limited bans and heightened scrutiny from legislative bodies.

Why You Should Care About a Possible Ban

• This would undoubtedly impact your business: 93% of marketers say that producing vertical or short-form video content is extremely or somewhat valuable to their company’s marketing objectives. 82% of marketers say that a TikTok ban in the U.S. would have a significant or moderate impact on achieving their company’s social media marketing or advertising objectives.?
• The “App Life Report” found that TikTok has evolved beyond a video sharing app to a shopping and searching app as well: TikTok is responsible for 1% of all paid iOS in-app transactions and 74% of users also utilize the app as a search destination, with 28% conducting more than a hundred searches a month.?
• TikTok generates effective engagement and brand building: More than ever, brands go where consumers are - and in the U.S. alone, approximately 113.3 million people are making it hard to argue against the value proposition of TikTok. TikTok users watch over 167 million hours of video content on the app in a sample of one minute, according to Statista.

Your TikTok Contingency Plan

Social media platform uncertainty isn’t uncharted territory for marketers and advertisers. Historically speaking, we’ve seen the rise and fall of platforms like MySpace, Google+, Vine, and even questioning the survival of Twitter in the last year. Marketers must stay on their toes as all signs point to continued challenges.?

Proactively Anticipating All The What Ifs?

With renewed sense of uncertainty on the potential for a US ban of TikTok, consider the steps below for quick action:?

1. Protect Your advertising data: Be prepared to remove TikTok pixels from your website, if necessary. Now is as great a time as ever to brush up on your knowledge of first-party data and develop strategies to market to customers using the information you’ve collected via your owned and operated channels.
2. Establish or enhance your presence on social media platforms other than TikTok that attract similar users, such as Instagram or YouTube: Lookalikes, being as varied as they are today, could lead to audiences ending up on a number of different platforms. Consider leaning into a cross-channel strategy to test and learn where your audience would be. Here are a few key audience demographic statistics to keep in mind from Marketing Dive:

• Women are TikTok’s most active users, browsing an average of 6,819 videos in January 2023. Men, on the other hand, browsed 5,666 videos
• Women also tend to be more active on the site in general, with 34% posting a video during that month compared to 27% of men.?
• 86 percent of women also liked a video, compared to 79% of men.

1. Repurpose your content: Keeping in mind the differing content length limits and topic restrictions, make sure the content you’re creating for TikTok can also be repurposed on other short form video platforms. This will help you avoid having to spend more money, resources, and time to engage your customers – effectively allowing you to pivot quickly if access to the platform changes.
2. Consider your communities: Unlike Snap and Reels, one of TikTok’s biggest strengths is its curation of shared-interest communities like #BookTok, #CleanTok, and #FoodTok. If your strategy centers on tapping into these communities, substituting another community-driven platform like Reddit may be a better fit than Instagram.?
3. Keep an eye on creators: With thousands of US-based creators’ livelihoods on the line, pay attention to where they shift their content and expect audiences to follow their favorite creators. If you don’t know which creators are your audience’s favorites, spend some time on the platform yourself or tap into social listening to make a shortlist of the most beloved creators in your category.
4. Diversify your ad budget to stay ahead of social media volatility: Capterra’s research finds that 70% of marketers believe their company should expand its presence in other digital media channels (excluding social) if TikTok were banned in the U.S. Evaluate your spend and campaign performance to determine which other social platforms or advertising channels your ads might resonate best on.?
5. Stay on your toes: Most of the data-concerns lawmakers cite against TikTok are also true of US-based companies like Meta and Google, including collaboration with the CCP. A ban of TikTok could be the catalyst for more changes to how tech companies are regulated.

The fate of TikTok in the U.S. is still a far cry from being resolved – the best course of action is not to take a “wait and see” approach, but rather to get your strategy prepared for any potential outcome. There’s no such thing as being too prepared for a national ban pertaining to what has been a dominant social media platform for users and marketers alike.