As the deadline on TikTok’s U.S. future looms, some people at PNW worry about losing income and a useful app. 

“Personally, I would have to find another platform to post on and be creative on,” said Jada Wallace, a first year Nursing student. “I think the ban would have a negative impact because … [it] allows me to take a breather and kind of escape from whatever I have going on,” 

Wallace, who has nearly 15,000 followers on TikTok, is worried the platform will be banned here. Creators using TikTok may earn money by developing popular content. The payout can range from a few dollars per month to several thousand dollars. 

Last year, Congress – fearing that U.S. users’ personal data was being collected by the Chinese government – passed a law giving ByteDance Ltd., the TikTok app’s Chinese parent company, nine months to divest the U.S. company or be banned from operating here. Despite efforts to fight the law legally, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was constitutional. 

The company originally had until Jan. 19 to sell TikTok or shutter its operation in the U.S. President Donald Trump delayed the ban of TikTok for 75 days, and earlier this month extended the ban till June. 

But delays alone have not calmed nervous users. 

TikTok has grown in popularity since the start of the pandemic in 2020, and has become one of the most important and influential social media platforms, literally creating a market for short-form videos.

“I think it’s gonna impact the influencers that are making a living off of TikTok,” said Toqa Hassan, who teaches Digital Media. “I think users are going to move to Instagram and Meta, which will keep things under U.S. control, and so those companies will follow along with our political climate and limit people to the resources we have here in the U.S.”