TikTok could soon go dark in the U.S.as a result of the Supreme Court on Friday upholding a law banning the app unless it is sold by its China-based parent company.
If that happens, small businesses and content creators whose livelihoods depend on the social media platform would be wiped out along with the app. Independent companies say the bulk of their sales are inextricably linked to the platform and that the success they've had hawking products on TikTok cannot be matched elsewhere. Jessica Simon, the founder of Mississippi Candle Company, on Friday said she was "grieving" over what she anticipates to be a steep decline in sales if TikTok is banned from app stores in the U.S.as early as Sunday. She said that between 90% - 98% of her candle company's sales come either directly or indirectly from TikTok. "That much of our business comes from people seeing our products on TikTok and buying it through our TikTok shop, or coming to our website," Simon told CBS MoneyWatch.
"I am still processing the news." Simon, who first started making candles on her stovetop, said the TikTok shop she launched in 2023 "changed our lives." Concerns over a national security threat posed by TikTok's China-based parent, ByteDance, however, outweighed the travails of accountholders like Simon, with the nation's highest court upholding the potential ban.The Justice Department applauded the ruling."The Court's decision enables the Justice Department to prevent the Chinese government from weaponizing TikTok to undermine America's national security," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
"Authoritarian regimes should not have unfettered access to millions of Americans' sensitive data."Jeffrey Fisher, a lawyer who represented TikTok content creators in the app's case before the Supreme Court, urged President Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland in a letter on Friday to delay implementation of the law."The law is scheduled to go into...