TikTok users who making living off app face impending US ban

As the Commerce Department rolls out a ban of the social media app TikTok this weekend, access to the popular social media app could impact users.

News 12 Staff

Sep 18, 2020, 9:22 PM

Updated 1,485 days ago

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As the Commerce Department rolls out a ban of the social media app TikTok this weekend, access to the popular social media app could impact users.
Users who scroll through videos on TikTok as a form of entertainment are not going to be significantly affected. However, those who make the app a part of their everyday lives will be impacted.
"I created a business, and I'm living off of it," says Anthony Rodriguez, who is a TikTok influencer.
President Donald Trump's order to restrict TikTok may start taking the effect this weekend, which means it will block access to the app in different ways, according to Duarte Pereira, CTO of FitechGelb. One of those bans includes the app from being downloaded through companies like Google and the Apple Store.
"All these companies are just collecting data from people," Duarte explains. "Since the app on the servers are pretty much in China and not so much here in the United States, it's hard to understand what they're doing."
Those who already have it on their phones can still use them, but it will impact those who have turned the app into an opportunity.
"We've had sponsorships with the Fab Fit Fun Boxes, a bunch of keto companies reach out to us and want us to advertise for them because we have a very large Keto following on TikTok. A bunch of jewelry companies," says user Dolly Jill.
"We put a lot of work into this, and now they just want to take it away from us," says user Mama Jill.
"Promoting these restaurants and seeing these results, like people tripling their average sales, and for it to go away, it's gonna be a huge, huge loss," Rodriguez says.
The Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat is also facing restrictions as well.