By Seher Dareen
(Reuters) - American content creators on TikTok asked followers to subscribe to their channels on rival platforms like Meta-owned Instagram and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)'s YouTube after a federal appeals court ruled that the social media app could be banned if it is not sold to a U.S.-based company by Jan. 19.
TikTok has become a major U.S. digital force as it has grown to 170 million U.S. users, especially younger people drawn to its short, often irreverent videos. It has sucked away advertisers from some of the largest U.S. players and added commerce platform TikTok Shop, which has become a marketplace for small businesses.
The U.S. Congress, fearing TikTok's Chinese owners are gathering information about American consumers, has passed a law requiring its owner, Chinese-backed ByteDance, to divest its TikTok in the U.S. or face a ban. On Friday, a federal appeals court upheld the law.
Threats by politicians and others to TikTok have been building for years, leading some users to brush off recent threats. That appeared to change on Friday, with the prospect of a ban in just six weeks. A Supreme Court appeal is still possible.
"For the first time I'm realizing that a lot of what I worked for could disappear," Chris Mowrey, a Democratic social media influencer with 470,000 TikTok followers, told Reuters. "I don't think it's been talked about enough how damaging it will be from an economic standpoint for small businesses and creators."
On the app, viewers and content creators voiced concerns and confusion, many saying they doubted the platform would survive, and that they were prepared for the worst.
Chris Burkett, a content creator on TikTok with 1.3 million people following his men's lifestyle videos, said he did not think the platform would last. "I don't think there's longevity on this app in the United States," he said in a video post, asking his audience to follow him on other social media platforms, such as Instagram, YouTube, X and Threads.
"We've put so many years and so much time into building our community here," said food travel content creator SnipingForDom, who has 898,000 followers on the app. While he did not think the end was near for TikTok, he still told followers to reach out to him on his Instagram page.
Others were also awaiting more information. Sarah Jannetti, a TikTok Shop consultant, said her clients are not worried about a potential TikTok ban and will not shift their businesses "until they see something that's more concrete."