TikTok creators aren’t afraid of a potential ban
TikTok creators aren’t afraid of a potential ban
Even with the House of Representatives passing legislation last month, some who make content for the platform aren’t worried about what the future might hold.
Despite the U.S. House of Representatives passing a bill that could ban TikTok on March 13, some content creators aren’t concerned about what might happen to their online presence.
The legislation, which has yet to pass the Senate, would force ByteDance, the platform’s Chinese parent company, to either sell the platform within six months of its passing or face a ban over security concerns.
However, the lack of action from the Senate hasn’t stopped the short-term fears for some.
“If TikTok was to get banned, I would be completely unemployed,” SU junior Maddy De Vera said. “I have three jobs at the moment and they all revolve around TikTok.”
De Vera is currently spending her semester in New York City through the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications program. She is currently interning with Maxwell Jones, a host for Z100, as a coordinator and editor for his social media accounts in addition to assisting with Syracuse University’s presence on the platform.
While the ban could affect her current employment, De Vera isn’t worried that what she learned using the platform will go to waste.
“The skills are very transferable at the end of the day,” De Vera said. “TikTok is an entertainment app, not social media. So it’s learning how to tell a story in 10 seconds or less and being able to convey a message to your audience, and I think that the same techniques used in advertisements are used in creating TikTok videos.”
Ryan Micho, who creates content with his brother Aidan on @krab_videos as well as for American High, said that in the event of a ban, his videos may even get more consistent viewership resulting from the different algorithms on platforms like Instagram and YouTube.
“Your following doesn’t have as much of an impact on TikTok, whereas on the other platforms, that’s definitely a huge factor,” Micho said. “Someone with not a huge following can have a viral video with a pretty similar chance as to a bigger account, whereas on the other platforms, that’s not necessarily true.”
Although creating short-form video content has dominated Micho’s career since graduating from the Newhouse School in December 2022, he doesn’t think the category would completely disappear if TikTok went dark.
“I’m not particularly concerned about TikTok being banned affecting short form,” Micho said. “The good thing about social media is that there is no barrier to posting.”
