President Joe Biden signed a bill last week that could lead to a nationwide ban on TikTok.
While the potential for a TikTok ban is still some way off, small business owners are concerned that banning the app could negatively impact their businesses.
A big part of Joe Amato, founder of VIVO Creative, and his team’s daily tasks is helping about 15 small business owners make TikToks.
“TikTok changed the way the Internet worked, specifically for small businesses, I think,” Amato said. “TikTok came in and said, ‘Hey, everyone can create. Everyone is capable of building an audience. And we took advantage of that, and our customers took advantage of that.”
Amato said he realized TikTok would become an asset for small businesses in 2020. He started creating videos to promote his own personal brand and bring more exposure to his company, which helps small businesses gain an audience through social media.
He said VIVO Creative produces around 150 to 200 TikToks for clients every month.
“TikTok, being the one that gets a lot of attention, is a huge opportunity for companies to build an audience very quickly, to reach people they haven’t been able to reach, to reach people they haven’t reached before, to get in front of potentially millions of new people and for free,” Amato said.
Biden signed a bill recently passed by Congress that requires TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell TikTok, or TikTok users in the US could be booted from the platform.
This is worrying for Amato, both himself and his clients.
“I think this ban is crazy. I think it’s crazy. I think it’s just another way for our government to get its hands on what we see, think and hear. TikTok is a free speech platform, and anyone I know who uses it regularly feels exactly the same way I do,” Amato said.
US lawmakers are concerned that TikTok’s ties to China pose a potential threat to national security.
In a video posted on X shortly after the bill was signed, TikTok CEO Shou Chew said the company plans to fight it in court.
“It’s obviously a disappointing moment, but it doesn’t have to be decisive,” Chew said. “TikTok gives everyday Americans a powerful way to be seen and heard, which is why so many people have made TikTok a part of their daily lives.”
Amato said his ultimate goal is to help his clients reach customers.
“If TikTok didn’t change the way social media is viewed and used, we wouldn’t be doing things the way we do today. I don’t know where we would be today, to be honest,” Amato said.
According to the newly signed bill, TikTok’s parent company, Byte Dance, has until mid-January next year to sell TikTok. If it is not sold, or the law is not reversed in court, there is a chance that users across the country will be impacted.
TikTok’s CEO said 170 million users and 7 million business owners use the platform.
