Local influencer’s thoughts on signed bill that could potentially ban Tiktok

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – President Joe Biden signed a bill Wednesday that could lead to a nationwide TikTok ban.

This bill was approved by the House on Saturday and by the Senate on Tuesday. The bill gives TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, until next January to sell the app, or it will be banned in the United States.

KBTX spoke with a local TikTok creator, Caroline Dobbs, about how the law could affect her. Caroline creates lifestyle content and is a student at Texas A&M University.

Caroline Dobbs

“I ended up falling in love with making funny, short-form videos,” said Dobbs. “I mostly do lifestyle content and things like that now.”

Caroline first became viral 2 years ago when she filmed a comedy video with her dad.

“It just went exponentially viral and my following skyrocketed from there so I give all of my gratitude to my dad,” said Dobbs.

This online platform has turned into a side hustle and hobby for Caroline.

When she heard that TikTok has the potential of getting banned, she had mixed emotions.

“I do think that it is a little bit of a blessing in disguise that I’m going to be able to step away from it because I think that social media is all-consuming especially nowadays, but I was sad at the same time. It’s such a diverse platform, and it’s so unique, it is a fun platform to make videos on and scroll mindlessly for hours,” said Dobbs.

If TikTok is banned, she would lose that extra income and all of the videos she created. With that in mind, Caroline has started to save all of her TikToks to keep the memories.

“It is such a fun platform and there’s so many funny videos that I think that I’ve liked or saved and I’m going through my content now and I’m like ‘I need to save everything and I need to repurpose that content to maybe post on Instagram reels,’” said Dobbs.

Venky Shankar, Brierley Endowed Professor of Marketing and Academic Director of Brierly Institute of Customer Engagement at Southern Methodist University, says the ban would change daily life for content consumers.

“It will affect the users in consuming the TikTok type of social media, it will also affect a lot of average influencers. We all consume social media and some of us are more addicted than others. All of us depend on social media with our friends,” said Shankar.

Nearly half of smartphone users in the United States have TikTok downloaded on their phones, a platform that allows many to create content, make money, and be entertained.

The potential ban of one of the most used apps in the U.S. not only affects online influencers, it will affect the average American too.

As a major marketing tool, TikTok has given employment to millions in the U.S. and Shankar says the ban would change a major form of communication for both people and businesses.

“If this ban goes through completely, then the tech companies will have a significant source of worry. It might have wider ramifications or implications for other aspects of the business, tech world, marketing, and social media because nobody will be immune to a ban,” said Shankar.

Critics say banning TikTok violates users’ First Amendment rights and its owner said the company will fight in the courts to stay online in the U.S.