Possible TikTok ban will require businesses, creators to adapt

TikTok, the wildly popular social media video app, may soon be banned in the United States. The app’s future has been hanging in the balance since President Biden signed legislation that required TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell to a U.S. owner. The legislation argues that the Chinese-owned company poses a threat to the nation’s security. 

TikTok provides its 150 million users in the U.S. with a variety of video content based on the platform’s algorithm, designed to show users personalized content that relates to their interests. For some, the app has provided a space for them to promote their business or generate an income. 

While there has been significant pushback on the legislation from these types of users, Natalie Tindall, director of the Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations, says that although it may be a challenge at first, businesses and creators will find a new online space. 

“People are realizing that they’re losing a platform,” Tindall said. “Whether that’s a brand, a creator, or just a fan of the app, TikTok didn’t exist some five to 10 years ago, but we’ve become accustomed to it and now, it’s like with all things, you have to be flexible and adapt.”

Tindall says that savvy brands with a large following on TikTok have likely already been planning for their futures after hearing the news of the legislation. Those that haven’t, she says, need to start thinking about where their audiences are going and determine how to migrate their content.  

“Brands are built over years, not quarters,” she said. “You built a brand on this one platform and then you build one on another platform, will you build the same following? No, but you will still be able to rebuild something.” 

Certainly, the banning of a social media app is uncharted territory in the U.S., but the comings and goings of social media platforms is nothing new. Tindall recalls the days of Vine, the short-form video app that was bought by Twitter in 2012. Many of Vine’s users lost their content once the app was shut down. Tindall suggests that TikTok creators and businesses archive their content now and try to lockdown their username on multiple platforms, even if they are unsure of how their content will perform there. 

“It’s just a matter of being able to think strategically, looking at the trends, being willing to dive in and invest the time to learn it,” she said. “No one platform is going to shut a person down.” 

While it’s still not clear how the TikTok ban would impact users who already have the app, Gary Wilcox, Moody College advertising and public relations professor, says that new apps will emerge and that’s just part of competition in business. 

“There are other platforms that would love to jump up and say, ‘hey, look at me and this alternative’,” he said. “We like to think of ourselves as a competitive business environment. If we take away competition, that’s not good and so something else, something new, will happen.” 

Though worries about national security has heightened the TikTok controversy, Wilcox points to generational change and how considerations about the welfare of the American public are cyclical in media and advertising. 

“Many years ago, people were concerned about television, and then cable television, and then music,” he said. “It was all going to corrupt our kids, and we had to protect them. In general in our society, we’ve been concerned about our youth and their development and so I think there’s some of that in the concerns about TikTok and social media.”