Will TikTok Really Get Banned? Read on.

Your Weekly Short-Form Video Secrets: Our hot take on what’s happening on Capitol Hill and what you can do about it right now.?

Again, did Congress really just do that??

Yep- Congress moved forward with a bill called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (they were going for pithy). They received support from both sides of the aisle plus Biden. ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company) now has 9 months (plus an additional 90 days if a sale is in progress) to sell to an American company or be banned in the US.?

The main rationale is that there are security concerns for its 170 million US-based users (keep in mind TikTok has 2 billion users globally). There hasn’t been much talk of whether CapCut will be affected, which is also a ByteDance-owned app. And while not a social media platform, is the app where people make their videos for social media… so it seems odd that one is being targeted and not the other. (We have a lot of theories backed by data as to why this is REALLY being forced, but for now, we’ll stick to the issue at hand.)

Is a ban actually going to happen?

According to the TikTok’s CEOShou Zi Chew, no. He’s pushing back that, “This is a trampling of the 1st amendment right, plus deprives 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow their businesses.” And now Trump has reversed his stance, saying he’ll keep TikTok if he were to be elected.?

And while TikTok is taking a firm stance that they won’t sell (after all, US users are only a small portion of their user base), they are projected to make $7.7 billion on US-based ad revenue in 2024, and $9.5 billion in 2025, with US-based businesses expected to spend upwards of $88 billion by 2028.?

What does this mean for me??

As a personal brand or entrepreneur, or even as a full-time content creator, we should NEVER trust that an audience built on rented real estate will stick around (RIP Periscope, MySpace and Vine). The platforms will come and go, and as frustrating as that is, the goal is to use the platforms to then funnel your audience into your own ecosystem.?

This is just another great example as to why you want to be building an email list, a text marketing list, something that you have full control over.?

So should I get off of TikTok now??

We actually don’t think so. We were full-time content creators back when Zuckerberg was under fire and people were adamant Facebook was getting shut down. Creators left the platform in troves, actually making more space within the platform for us to be successful. This may actually be a GREAT time to build on TikTok, as long as you’re thinking ahead to how you’ll pull viewers off the platform and into your own ecosystem.?

So what’s the TLDR of this??

Take a breath. There’s a lot of time between now and when this is ‘ban’ to go into effect. One of the variables that will determine TikTok’s outcome is the upcoming election. This is a great time to think about what matters to you and where you stand on the issue, and communicate that to your representatives.?

What do you think will happen next? We’d love to hear from you.?

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Happy posting!?