One Portland businessman described the app as “word of mouth, on steroids.” Now, he and others believe that they should find a way back to their village.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Editor’s note: On Friday evening, TikTok said it would be “dark” this weekend unless the Biden administration assures the company it won’t force a shutdown. This article was written before that announcement.
Now that the Supreme Court has made a unanimous decision to uphold Congress’s bill to ban TikTok, US citizens, creators and business owners may have to figure out what’s next. eat – and fast.
The high court’s decision was announced Friday morning, shooting down the push from TikTok and others who say the ban violates the First Amendment.
Right now, it’s not entirely clear how users will view the ban being enforced as the day Sunday was first observed. The Biden administration released a statement on Friday that said in part, “Given the reality of the times, this Administration recognizes that enforcement action must be taken.” fall to the next Administration, which will take office on Monday.”
President-elect Donald Trump wrote on Social Truth that the decision of the Supreme Court was expected and should be respected, and that his “decision on TikTok will be made soon , but I must have time to review the situation.”
The ban came amid concerns in Congress that China could access US citizens’ data and use it because it is owned by a Chinese company. ByteDance.
However, some users say that the security of their information on TikTok is not a big concern to them.
“There are American companies that we’ve had problems with,” said Maksim Medvedev, owner of Griddly Bear, a food truck. He is referring to the massive collection and sharing of user data that American companies like Facebook have been accused of doing before.
Medvedev made his first TikTok post for his business Thursday. As of Friday afternoon, it had more than 45,000 views.
“I was like, ‘TikTok is going away, let’s go for it,’ and I posted it for fun, not really, but it’s getting a lot of views, likes and comments and action,” he said. .
He said that he usually posts on Facebook or Instagram, which usually gets a few clicks. He wished he had started posting on TikTok earlier and was not in favor of the ban.
“I’m not a fan. I get a lot of entertainment from TikTok,” he said. “I’m looking at what he can do in business, in terms of the attention he can bring in, the customers he can bring in.”
He said on Friday he saw more customers than usual on a cold morning, and he thought it was because of the app.
Lyndsay Maderis is another entrepreneur, who founded Thairapy PDX. His personal and business account has grown on the app, and he says it’s been an amazing experience for him.
“If it goes dark, it’s a big loss for us because it’s a huge attraction of new customers and exposure for us that’s just going to be taken away,” he said. Maderis. “Word-of-mouth on steroids.”
He said he went to RedNote, another app that many TikTok users are flocking to, which is also Chinese owned. Maderis is also not worried about the possibility of China collecting his records.
“I’m not hiding anything. I am more concerned about my information being sold and monetized on all platforms, and I hope they control the misinformation and user data for any site,” he said.
He said that at least one-third of his customers come from TikTok.
“Support your small businesses because they are going to be hit hard right now,” he said. “To the people who are sad, like me, the loss of that community on TikTok… we found each other, we will find each other again.
“Something has been awakened in us, in free speech and sharing of information that you can’t take away, and we will find a way to do that again.”
Others, like Rebecca Culver, do not have the app and do not allow their children to use it because of their own social media status. That said, Culver does not support the ban.
“I think it’s important to think about things like national security and all those kinds of things, but I think when you start banning things, it becomes a slippery slope,” he said.
He likened it to Americans having the option to buy something from China, and said people should make their own decisions about whether they want to participate or not.
“It should really, I think, be up to the customer to manage their usage,” Culver said.
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