What’s up?
It’s Sussan Mourad here with Clevver News and it’s been a week of chaos for Tik Tokkers
as President Trump continues to threaten to ban the beloved app.
Now some of our favorite influencers are speaking out about the potential ban and what that
means for their future careers.
Alright, so if you are a fan of Tik Tok, you’ve likely heard the news by now that Donald Trump
announced that he may be banning Tik Tok in the United States using his executive authority.
“We’re looking at Tik Tok.
We may be banning Tik Tok, we may be doing some other things.”
Lawmakers in both political parties have actually expressed concerns over TikTok's Chinese ownership
and fears that Beijing could use the social media app to gain access to U.S. user data.
But Trump’s announcement last Friday that he was banning the app altogether came as
a shocking surprise to everyone.
While many reports say that it doesn’t seem like Trump has the power to just go ahead
and ban Tik Tok, he has set a deadline of September 15th for the app to be bought by
a US company or else he plans on shutting it down.
"It'll close down on September 15th unless Microsoft or somebody else is able to buy
it and work out a deal, an appropriate deal."
And despite all of this recent news, TikTok’s US General Manager Vanessa Pappas took to
Twitter on August 1, and uploaded a video to the official Tik Tok account.
She told followers that they aren’t planning on going anywhere.
“We’ve heard your outpouring of support and we want to say thank you and we’re not
planning on going anywhere.”
I know, it’s a lot to digest, but you if want more on Trump and Tik Tok, we did a whole
video explaining the potential Microsoft deal and the future of the app.
I linked it above for you in case you want more backstory.
But for now, while the fate of Tik Tok is not completely clear, both fans and influencers
have been sent into a complete frenzy over the potential disappearance of their favorite
app.
Many of our favorite influencers and Tik Tokkers have been speaking out about what they will
do if Tik Tok is banned.
Emma Chamberlain spoke to Variety about everything going on with Tik Tok and it seems like she’s
made peace with whatever happens.
While Emma has been outspoken about her love for Tik Tok in the past…
“I was a huge hater of Tik Tok.
I didn’t get it and I’m sorry I’ve changed.
I love it now.
I think it’s my passion.”
She told Variety that quote, “I would be sad a little bit, but I also think it would
be kind of a relief because it is kind of addicting from a viewer standpoint.
As a viewer, it is really addicting and I can spend a lot of time on it and I actually
think it might make my anxiety kind of bad.”Emma went on and said quote, “But if it went
away?
Everything happens for a reason and I’d be like, you know what — it was time.
Time for me to get a hobby.
No joke, it’s time for me to get back to my life.”
And Loren Grey, who famously held the spot of most followed person on Tik Tok before
Charli D’Amelio surpassed her, also spoke out about the potential disappearance of the
app.
In an interview on Quibi, Loren said quote, “I feel like whatever happens is probably
in the best interest of the country.
I’m very fortunate that I have built up platforms on other social medias outside of
TikTok, so I don’t think it would be a career ending scenario, but it would be sad.”
Tik Tokker Josh Richards talked about joining a Tik Tok Rival app called Triller and told
Entertainment Tonight that quote, “We started hearing the rumors about TikTok in the media
and news, and with that we kinda felt like it was our responsibility to go and find a
place that would be safe for other creators, ourselves and definitely the number one focus,
the people that follow us and are supporters.”
And Tik Tok reigning queen Charli D’Amelio talked about what she would do if Tik Tok
was banned in a recent YouTube video with her sister Dixie and James Charles.
“Probably just keep dancing like I’ve been doing my whole life”
And Charli has built up massive followings across all of her other platforms so she would
likely be fine without Tik Toks, but some other smaller Tik Tokkers may not be.
Fellow influencer and Tik Tokker Larray actually shouted out these smaller creators on Twitter
saying quote, “On a serious note if tiktok is actually getting deleted.
Please support your favorite smaller tiktok creators.
follow them on YouTube, Instagram etc. some of these kids really do have talent and deserve
everything.”
And while some influencers have been taking the shut down rumors very seriously, others
are having a little fun with it like Addison Rae who famously dropped out of college to
pursue her Tik Tok career in Los Angeles.
After news broke about a potential Tik Tok ban, she posted this video of herself on her
Tik Tok page writing “Me at LSU tomorrow.”
But she also told her Tik Tok followers to follow her on other platforms like Instagram
and YouTube.
And interestingly enough, Instagram just announced their own short form video feature called
Reels, which seems like it could be similar to Tik Tok.
In their announcement post Instagram wrote “Now you can record and edit 15-second multi-clip
videos with music, effects and new creative features.
Reels lets you express yourself and entertain people, whether you’re showing off a new
skill or making a funny video the world deserves to see.⁣⁣”
And some celebs like Storm Reid have already started making Reels content.
“Do you hear that?
That’s me minding my business.
Y’all should try it.
Have an amazing day.”
So who knows, maybe Tik Tokkers will migrate over to Reels if Tik Tok really does get banned.
But in the meantime we are just going to keep enjoying all the great videos Tik Tok has
to offer while we can.
We will keep you guys posted as this story continues to unfold.
I also feel like this is a good opportunity to remind you all to register to vote!
50% of Tik Tok users in the United States are 18 to 34 years old which is around 35
million voters.
So if you want to make your voices heard, we’ve added a link down in our description
to register or check if you’re already registered to vote.
And if you want more Tik Tok news, click right over here for another Clevver video.
And let us down know in the comments below what you think about these celeb responses
to the potential Tik Tok ban.
Would you be sad to see Tik Tok go?
I’m your host Sussan Mourad, bye guys!