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The War on TikTok

Most days I come home from work and disassociate on the couch for thirty minutes to an hour. Is my time spent productively? Absolutely not. My time is spent scrolling through my TikTok feed. Now, you might be wondering, how on earth can you spend an hour scrolling on TikTok? Well, if you don’t have an account, let me explain. To put it simply, you fall down a rabbit hole. TikTok has this power to pull you in with short form content that’s informative as well as entertaining. 

I've learned quite a bit from TikTok if you can believe it — anything from random life hacks, beauty hacks, cleaning hacks, all the way to news headlines from my local authorities. Among all the hacks I’ve learned, it would be remiss of me to not also share that the majority of my FYP (for you page) is dog videos. That won’t come as a shocker to those that know me well. 

When I asked my husband what he enjoys about TikTok, he mentioned about how interesting it is to watch sub par food reviewers. You see, that’s the beauty of TikTok — anybody can be anything they want to be, all you need is an account and “somewhat compelling content.”

Small businesses are also growing in popularity through the app, thanks in large part to their products going viral. TikTok really does have it all. 

Even though this highly addictive, highly entertaining, and small business friendly app brings joy to many, to others it brings fear, or concern. With all that said, here’s what you need to know about the potential TikTok ban in the United States.

The House overwhelmingly approved legislation that would, “ban TikTok from operating in the United States or force a sale, posing the most serious threat yet to the popular short-form video platform,” according to USA Today. The issue stems from TikTok’s Chinese ownership and its parent company ByteDance. Essentially, the House gave ByteDance an option — sell within six months, or lose access to app stores across the United States.

The New York Times reported that, “many are worried that the Chinese government could demand the personal data of Americans from ByteDance and that, under Chinese law, ByteDance would have to comply.”

What does this mean for content creators and small businesses? Well, nothing just yet. As mentioned previously, the House has given TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance six months to make a decision. If they do decide to sell, what would that look like? Would users still be able to download the app? Would content creators be able to continue to create? All of that is still up in the air. 

For now, we still have access to the app, which for me means, I can continue my ritual of disassociation. So, what are your thoughts on the potential TikTok ban? Let me know below in the comments or over on Instagram @etsparkles.

Until next week! 

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