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Appeals court rules TikTok must be sold or banned

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ByteDance faces Jan. 19 deadline to sell to US company

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US lawmakers worry TikTok mines personal data for Chinese

owners

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'A lot of what I've worked for could disappear,' creator

says

By Seher Dareen

Dec 7 (Reuters) - American content creators on TikTok

asked followers to subscribe to their channels on rival

platforms like Meta-owned Instagram and Alphabet's

YouTube after a federal appeals court ruled that the

social media app could be banned if it is not sold to a

U.S.-based company by Jan. 19.

TikTok has become a major U.S. digital force as it has grown

to 170 million U.S. users, especially younger people drawn to

its short, often irreverent videos. It has sucked away

advertisers from some of the largest U.S. players and added

commerce platform TikTok Shop, which has become a marketplace

for small businesses.

The U.S. Congress, fearing TikTok's Chinese owners are

gathering information about American consumers, has passed a law

requiring its owner, Chinese-backed ByteDance, to divest its

TikTok in the U.S. or face a ban. On Friday, a federal appeals

court upheld the law.

Threats by politicians and others to TikTok have been

building for years, leading some users to brush off recent

threats. That appeared to change on Friday, with the prospect of

a ban in just six weeks. A Supreme Court appeal is still

possible.

"For the first time I'm realizing that a lot of what I

worked for could disappear," Chris Mowrey, a Democratic social

media influencer with 470,000 TikTok followers, told Reuters. "I

don't think it's been talked about enough how damaging it will

be from an economic standpoint for small businesses and

creators."

On the app, viewers and content creators voiced concerns and

confusion, many saying they doubted the platform would survive,

and that they were prepared for the worst.

Chris Burkett, a content creator on TikTok with 1.3 million

people following his men's lifestyle videos, said he did not

think the platform would last. "I don't think there's longevity

on this app in the United States," he said in a video post,

asking his audience to follow him on other social media

platforms, such as Instagram, YouTube, X and Threads.

"We've put so many years and so much time into building our

community here," said food travel content creator SnipingForDom,

who has 898,000 followers on the app. While he did not think the

end was near for TikTok, he still told followers to reach out to

him on his Instagram page.

Others were also awaiting more information. Sarah Jannetti,

a TikTok Shop consultant, said her clients are not worried about

a potential TikTok ban and will not shift their businesses

"until they see something that's more concrete."