CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Come Sunday, the social media app TikTok will be banned in the U.S. This comes after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 to reject a challenge filed against the ban.
It is still unknown whether the law will be enforced, President Joe Biden leaving that decision up to incoming president Donald Trump.
But the app has made an impact, including in Charlotte. Pop Charlotte, a balloon-business based in Gastonia, told Queen City News TikTok played a role in their growth. Owner Maggie Jenkins started by shipping orders out of her house and now operates out of a warehouse.
“2020 was a huge boom for the balloon industry, and I will say TikTok helped that because there was like a bunch of trending things on TikTok,” she said.
Congress passed the ban with bipartisan support in April. Lawmakers were concerned the app’s Chinese parent company would have to share user data with a government that is adversarial to the U.S. N.C. Attorney General Jeff Jackson raised his public profile with TikTok, posting frequently when he was serving in the House. But Jackson still supported the ban, hoping it would it stay alive if the app was sold to an American company.
“I like this app, I’ve been able to reach a lot of people and hear directly from them and it’s been great, I’m also in Congress and I’ve been part of some briefings that were generally alarming,” said Jackson in March 2024.
Many on the app say it has cemented itself as a reliable platform and has become a resource for small businesses.
“TikTok is where they find me. They see me,” said Jenkins. “I get more sponsors on TikTok so people will send me free products, backdrops and things to promote to put in these event backdrops.”
Jenkins says over the past four years, she has used several social media platforms to get her brand out, using TikTok to show her followers what a typical day looked like for her, even filming educational videos to teach people about balloon design and decorating.
“It’s sad. A lot of people will lose out on a lot of business,” she added. “And it’s really tragic, it’s like a part of like everyone’s creativity coming out. You can see the real behind the scenes of how their brain works and now they can’t get that anymore.”
It is still unclear if the ban will stand and unclear how Trump will proceed, but there is talk of delaying the ban if there is a deal on the table to sell off the app.
