the fate of Tik Tok could be decided at any moment today the US Supreme Court heard arguments over this new law to ban the app by January 19th because of National Security concerns the law would require the Chinese parent company of Tik Tock bite dance to divest itself or the platform would go dark NBC V's Jen shant on the story for us she's here now to explain what this means for everyday people Jen well there's a lot to unpack Allison let's start with what this means for everyday users like you at home nothing is certain
yet should the law that bans Tik Tok take effect if you have the app on your phone it's not going to magically disappear overnight nor are you legally required to delete it but the app stores won't have updates which over time will affect how the app operates and no new users will be able to download it either it's likely people may attempt workarounds like a virtual private Network or VPN where users can appear to be in a different geographic location or for Android users side loing that's getting the app from somewhere out side of Google's
Play store but there's risks to that and it's rather technical as all of this unfolds in the high court content creators are bracing for whatever comes next it means a loss of revenue for sure it means a loss of 160,000 people that follow me for recommendations and just entertainment Chicago based lifestyle content creator Jen white posts everything from travel reels a day in my 40something life traveling solo in in Paris to product reviews on Tik Tok since starting just before the pandemic much of her reach now benefits local Chicago businesses with a possible ban on
the horizon every time I see another influencer Creator it's what are we going to do what's your plan how are you going to handle this those people are going to have to quickly figure out how to shift their operations it's something Jen is already doing hoping her followers will migrate to other platforms like Instagram or YouTube there's evidence that's already happening but the brand deals an income as a creator on Tik Tok would go away if a band were to take effect how long before content goes dark so the answer is not simple and some
amount of time might be required Northwestern University Professor vs subian says to think of this like a pipe from your phone you request information from Tik Tok whenever you watch videos and flowing down from the other side either in response to a request from me or of their own bition there's data coming from the Tik Tok side to my phone if that pipe is removed or kind of blocked in the middle then this flow cannot happen a preliminary decision by the high court could come at any time the Justices today did not appear convinced by
Tik tok's Free Speech arguments but there's still uncertainty over exactly how they'll handle the case a lot of people are creating posts on Tik Tok to say hey I'm on the other apps and you should follow me there and I haven't done that yet but I think it's time to do it like today if the law Banning the app is upheld and takes effect on January 19th that is one day before president-elect Donald Trump takes office Trump has asked the Supreme Court to temporarily block the law so that he can pursue quote a political resolution
to this it's unclear exactly what that would be coming up at 6 o00 reaction from Tik Tock attorneys much more to come on this Alex so so many people have this app Jen and use it all the time so it's definitely a big talker thank you so much for digging into that today
