Backlash on ban
Influencers claim platform elimination could maim their livelihoods
When Abby Rivera endorses makeup, she turns out buyers. This year, for the first time, she might turn out votes.
Just last spring, her review of It Cosmetics’ Bye Bye Under Eye Bags cream was played 16.7 million times. The product sold out overnight.
TikTok has allowed Rivera, 43, to build community and put food on the table.
But now, all of that is up in the air should Congress’ TikTok ban become law. Rivera hasn’t cast a ballot in an election in 12 years. This year, that changes.
If a candidate voted for the ban, she said, “then they have a vote against them when the election comes.”
Rivera is one of many influencers, whether they cover beauty or politics, who are speaking out over a proposed TikTok ban that could maim their livelihoods – and their ability to get out the vote come November.
In an overwhelming bipartisan vote, the House approved a measure to force the sale of TikTok to American owners or ban it from operating in the U.S. At issue is TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance. Proponents of the bill argue that ByteDance could be forced to hand over the personal data of TikTok’s 170 million American users to the Chinese government.
President Joe Biden said he would sign the legislation into law if it passes through the Senate.
But Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has signaled it could be a while before the Senate picks it up for discussion.
The delay means the bill could land on Biden’s desk only a few months or weeks ahead of Nov. 5 – with the potential to upset influencers and set millions of their followers against anyone in favor of the ban.
Former President Donald Trump said he would approve a TikTok ban while in office but has since retracted his support for one on the campaign trail.
Politicians recognize TikTok creators are powerful
Keith Edwards was one of 70 influencers the White House briefed ahead of the State of the Union address, hoping they would spread the word about Biden’s economic plan and student loan forgiveness to their young audiences.
Edwards, 39, is originally from
Macomb County, Michigan – a county that flipped from blue to red in 2020. Edwards is one of the 61% of millennials who, according to Pew Research Center, don’t have a college degree, and he spoke to Biden’s advisers about his generation’s experience of the economy.
That night, during Biden’s address, he told his 200,000 followers on TikTok, Instagram, and X that he was “already loving this speech.” When it was over, he brought attention to a CNN poll that found 62% of speech viewers said Biden’s policies would move the U.S. in the right direction.
But now, Edwards said, he is scared about the idea of giving any president the power to remove apps from the App Store.
“My friends at the Pentagon have been, like, ‘There’s a loaded gun on the table. Let’s take away the gun.’ ” Edwards told USA TODAY. “OK, I guess. But giving a president vast power just because something could happen? I don’t know how to feel.”
Presidential candidates have long sought celebrity endorsements, but in the social media age, they have begun courting content creators as well. Biden met with influencers in past election cycles, and former president Donald Trump befriended conservative influencers, including a Libs of TikTok administrator and Seth Dillon of The Babylon Bee.
Now these same TikTok influencers are crying foul.
North Carolina’s Democratic Rep. Jeff Jackson became a TikTok darling while campaigning for Congress for his personal, easy-to-understand videos. But when Jackson took to the app last week to explain his vote in favor of the TikTok ban, his 2.3 million followers were quick to point out his hypocrisy. He soon followed in the footsteps of many content creators before him – he released an apology video.
Influencer Noah Glenn Carter, 27, covers video games and entertainment news for his 8.7 million followers on TikTok. He said he saw the tide turn against Jackson among his younger audience.
“Jackson could use the app when it benefited him. But now he tells everyone that they can’t use it when it benefits them. I have more respect for the politicians that voted yes for the ban that use TikTok than I do for the ones that voted yes and use it.”
Josh Helfgott, an LGBT activist and content creator, worries that kind of backlash could extend to all politicians who vote to ban TikTok, all the way up to the presidency.
“The impact of that backlash toward Jeff Jackson is what I fear happening to every Democrat who votes yes for this, especially President Biden,” Helfgott said.
How the ban could disrupt communities, the economy
TikTok contains a sprawling amount of communities, ranging from #NewsTok to #BookTok and everything in between. It’s become a central hub of information for young people, in many cases replacing Google and other search platforms.
“TikTok has become the new Twitter,” Helfgott said.
Thirty-two percent of young adults in the United States – and 14% of Americans across all age demographics – now get their news straight from the app. And year over year, those numbers are growing.
TikTok wasn’t always a hub for news. Content on the app began to shift in the summer of 2020, at the height of the social justice protests following the murder of George Floyd. Young people wanted a way to mobilize and disseminate updates about the protests. Within months, TikTok – once overrun with bread-making tutorials in the early days of the pandemic – gave way to breaking news, analysis, and get-out-the-vote messages.
If the legislation passes, it could be devastating, Helfgott said. “It would leave a huge wound that wouldn’t be patched up by other platforms.”
This federal TikTok legislation is not the first of its kind in the U.S. but it goes further than similar social media bills proposed in Montana, Ohio, Utah, Arkansas and Florida, many of which are held up in court by First Amendment concerns.
Influencer and former counsel to Senate Democrats, Emily Amick said she was shocked to see the Republicancontrolled House, known for gridlock, pass the bill quickly without a thorough public explanation.
“The Republican House that had gotten very little done over the past year plus, suddenly seemed highly competent at pushing forward bipartisan legislation,” Amick said. “We still don’t really know why they did this.”
Many social media creators and users agree that Congress has more important things to focus on.
Rivera said the ban would hurt influencers and small businesses who depend on TikTok for income. “People are living paycheck to paycheck. That’s what the government needs to be focused on,” she said.
Rivera, who views TikTok as her fulltime job, has begun posting more content and directing her followers to other platforms in case the ban becomes law.
Some content creators, however, don’t have the luxury of being able to start again.
Sidney Raskind, a creator who has migrated from platform to platform over the years, pointed to TikTokkers with niche content who may be unable to replicate their success elsewhere.
“A lot of these small businesses, a lot of these farmers, a lot of these people that grew on TikTok because of their trade or special interest don’t have any other choice but TikTok.”
Vitus “V” Spehar of UnderTheDeskNews, a TikTok account that explains daily events and politics, agreed that pivoting to a different platform is not as easy as people assume.
“There is a unique culture to each platform that makes somebody successful on it or not. So to suggest you could just go somewhere else, that’s like saying to someone, ‘I’m going to burn down your house, but you can move in with your neighbor.’ ”
How the ban could affect young voters
Colton Hess, creator of the Tok the Vote coalition, knows the influence that TikTok can have on young voters. He has seen firsthand how the app can be used to mobilize people to vote.
When he founded Tok the Vote in the months leading up to the 2020 election, there had been a drop in voter registration among young adults due to the lack of in-person events during the pandemic.
“We wanted to go to where the young people were, and that was TikTok,” Hess says. Seeing the explosive growth on the app, he knew: “This is where we’ve got to reach people. This is where we’ve got to get people registered.”
The coalition got to work. Tok the Vote started the first nationwide voter registration campaign on TikTok. Over 300 content creators and influencers got on board to encourage their followers to get registered. Throughout the course of a single weekend, the coalition registered thousands of people across the country and #TokTheVote received over 35 million views.
The turnout among young voters that year was historic. Fifty-three percent of voters under the age of 30 cast a ballot in the 2020 presidential election, an 11% increase from the 2016 election. That helped carry Biden to victory, as nearly two-thirds of young voters backed the Democratic candidate.
Today, another campaign is happening on the app: #KeepTikTok. An ad appears when users search “TikTok ban” on the app asking them to enter their zip code to determine their senators’ contact information. “Tell your Senator how important TikTok is to you. Ask them to vote no on the TikTok ban,” the ad read.
Amick said politicians shouldn’t be surprised about the backlash to the ban. “It seems a pretty obvious response from users who adore TikTok,” she said.
Creator Johnny Palmadessa, 24, said he thinks the proposed ban is boosting young people’s interest in politics, but he doesn’t know for sure how it will affect their votes.
“I don’t see this helping Democrats,” Palmadessa said. “Then I look at the Republicans and the first thing that comes to mind is, well, President Biden might need to sign a bill that hurts his chances among young voters.”
Others see the TikTok ban as a reason to turn to an alternative candidate, like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The anti-vaccine activist has seen explosive growth on TikTok since the ban passed the House and has continued to position himself as a staunch supporter of the app and its users.
Spehar doesn’t plan on voting for RFK Jr. but recognizes the smart strategy behind his sudden pro-TikTok content. “He is filling a vacuum with promises that he can – or can’t – keep on TikTok,” Spehar said. “It’s not that the kids going to vote for Biden. It’s that the kids
going to vote for RFK Jr. because he has made himself feel like one of them.”
Even Rivera who previously shied away from political content has taken to TikTok to explain the process to her followers. Recently, she answered questions on how a bill becomes a law during her regular TikTok livestreams. She said she might make a post telling her followers to call their politicians when the bill is taken up by the Senate.
“Maybe I will make a post saying something like ‘Pick up the phone and call your state senator. Let them know how important this is,’ ” Rivera said. “When I made the phone call I said, ‘Listen. I am a single mom. I’m a widow. If it wasn’t for TikTok, I wouldn’t have a job.’ ”