CLEVELAND, Ohio — The clock is ticking, counting down to the TikTok ban, and people are wondering: What will happen this Sunday if the ban on TikTok goes into effect?
Earlier today, the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. can, in fact, ban the app due to security concerns. It's a decision that will fall to President-elect Trump once he takes office.
Everyone’s TikTok looks different, but for Madelyn Varela, it’s all about cheese.
“It started with wanting to help my customers be able to easily understand what cheeses I have,” said Varela.
From creamy to crumbly, on @CheezytalkwithMadelyn account, her videos grew quickly in popularity as she showcased unique cheeses, ways to make them and some Cleveland gems, gaining more than 200,000 followers.
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“I support small cheese makers from around the country by showcasing their products, and anytime I showcase their videos, I get reached out by them letting me know how much their sales have been impacted just because of one video,” said Varela.
She uses a couple of platforms for her cheese showcase, but TikTok is the only one that pays — making her about $2,000 monthly.
“TikTok has allowed breathing room in this economy. Like, yes, $2,000, an extra $2,000 a month, to some people, is not a lot. For me, it's been life-changing,” said Varela.
But all that could change this Sunday, when the app could be banned. The ban comes after the Supreme Court ruled that the government can take down TikTok in the U.S. unless it finds a different owner.
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Anat Alon-Beck, a Case Western Reserve University law professor, says bans like this are not unusual.
“The government does have the authority to ask companies to divest because of foreign ownership. We have CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) we have organizations that that's what they're trying to do. And this is something that happens all the time. It's just that it's coming up on the news because TikTok is popular,” said Beck.
She says that if President Joe Biden doesn’t extend the window for selling TikTok, the app will be taken down by Sunday.
“By Sunday, Apple, Google, they have to remove the apps from their app stores, and otherwise they would be in violation of what the supreme court says,” said Beck.
Experts say users will not be able to download the app if it is banned. However, if the app is already on your phone, you can still use it. It just won’t be updated, will start to glitch, and could soon stop working.
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“What I think is going to happen is people are going to go to VPN, I'm assuming, or they're going to go to the sister applications,” said Beck.
For people like Colin Wolffe, who met his wife on TikTok, he uses it for his daily scroll.
“Every day probably like an hour,” Wolffe continued, “Just you get news, there's a lot of independent journalists, a lot of conspiracy tickets.”
But he, like Varela, doesn't understand why it needs to be banned.
“I think it's weird. I don't understand the national security part of it,” said Wolffe.
“It's ludicrous. Listen, if you're on the internet, you know your data is being stolen,” said Valera.
As for Valera, she has already been transferring her videos to YouTube and Instagram, but she wants the federal government to understand that TikTok is more than just dance videos.
“Our lawmakers have not looked at real implications to every one of the creators and small businesses on the staff,” said Valera.
Beck recommends that TikTok users start looking at similar apps, stating that she doesn’t expect President Biden to extend the ban and is waiting to see what President Donald Trump does.
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