As the TikTok ban comes underway in Congress, the internet could look quite different.
Congress voted to ban TikTok in America on Saturday after concerns over the influential platform being run by Chinese company ByteDance. Lawmakers in both state and federal governments have been pushing to get rid of the platform due to national security reasons before the vote despite pushback by free speech advocates.
Congress gave ByteDance nine months to provide users time to export their information from the app, but after that, the Chinese company will need to sell the app to another company or else lose all American users and creators.
"It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again jam through a ban bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate 7 million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes $24 billion to the U.S. economy, annually," TikTok previously said on X (formerly Twitter).
The vote for the ban now has many questioning how the Internet will adapt as the site disappears in the United States.
"Instagram would see a huge boom if there were a TikTok ban, as would other sites," Nicholas Kardaras, a psychologist and expert in digital addiction, told Newsweek. "Creators are, if nothing else, creative and resourceful."
Instagram, which is owned by Meta (formerly Facebook), is the most popular platform that also offers a viral video tool through Reels. YouTube could also take up a substantial portion of the demand for TikTok.
But, according to Oxford Internet Governance and Regulation Professor Viktor Mayer-Schonberger, it might not be all bad for Americans who love engaging with the widespread social media platform.
With a TikTok ban across America, Mayer-Schonberger said Internet users will immediately look for a replacement, but so far, nothing has been able to emulate the viral video site.
"As a platform, TikTok has developed a particular 'language' of how things are being communicated," Mayer-Schonberger told Newsweek. "It's visual, but not still images. It's short, but long enough to convey an idea; and clever or crazy content is often more important than formal perfection."
Those who predict users will flock to Instagram could be sorely mistaken though, Mayer-Schonberger said.
"If TikTok is no longer available, Insta won't take over because Insta's 'language' is different," Mayer-Schonberger said. "So this creates an opening for something that's in many ways like TikTok, but without the addictive nature, perhaps without the 'foreign influence.'"
Due to this, U.S. tech companies are primed to take over the niche market that would be left in the case of a full-blown TikTok ban.
"That's a huge opportunity for US Internet companies, including startups to fill that void. Given how little innovation we have seen in this space thanks to the large platforms pushing stifling competition, this will be hugely interesting to watch," Mayer-Schonberger said.
Still, there could be negative ramifications for many Americans if a TikTok ban takes effect, especially as it concerns content creators on the platform. Many of these use the platform to accumulate a full-time salary's worth, and they will suddenly be without their way of making a livelihood.
"The potential banning of a social platform like TikTok is one of the most existential risks for creators who build their businesses exclusively on social media platforms," Ahad Khan, CEO of creator commerce platform Kajabi, told Newsweek. "Sometimes algorithms change, sometimes creator funds dissolve, and occasionally, social platforms completely disappear."
Khan said social media platforms will continue to be a good place to build an audience but creating a business that relies solely on this revenue is a dangerous game.
"The solution is creator ownership—building a direct relationship with your customers and communities in an environment where creators can own and control their incomes, brands and businesses," Khan said.
Olivia DeRamus, the founder of Communia, a social network for women, said the U.S. government could have avoided many of the larger economic concerns if they got ahead of TikTok's influence when it first came out.
"A lot of people's livelihoods are at stake," DeRamus told Newsweek. "Creators and businesses alike. If the American government had acted quickly when TikTok first came out, it wouldn't be as much as an issue. But because they waited until TikTok was so widely adopted, this could cause potential disruption to not just the creator economy but the larger economy overall."
Still, some aren't too concerned with the temporary loss of revenue for content creators, knowing they'll eventually find a new home for their audience and videos.
"They'll be fine," Michael Jaconi, the CEO and Founder of creator and app tracking platform Button, told Newsweek. "They are 'the new media.' Consumption of their content will simply migrate."
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Suzanne Blake is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting on consumer and social trends, spanning ... Read more
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