Philly content creators uncertain about the future after Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban

The Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld the federal law banning TikTok beginning Sunday unless its China-based parent company sells it. The court maintained that the risk to national security posed by TikTok’s ties to China outweigh concerns about limiting speech by the app or its 170 million users in the United States — leaving Philadelphia content creators in limbo.

“Do I have to take the weekend to download every piece of content that I think should be downloaded so I can move on and start fresh elsewhere?” said Bran Edelman (@bran_flakezz), who left his full-time job in merchandising at Gopuff in 2022 to pursue content creation full-time. Edelman, who lives in Fishtown, has amassed over 722,200 TikTok followers by posting about his nights out on the town. “None of us creators know what’s going on, and when we start talking about it, it just becomes a fearmongering session.”

TikTok’s sale does not appear imminent. Although experts have said the app will not disappear from existing users’ phones once the law takes effect Sunday, TikTok said it would proactively shut down the platform in the United States by the deadline. New users won’t be able to download the app nor will updates be available, eventually rendering the app unworkable, the Justice Department said in court filings.

The decision came as President-elect Donald Trump — who signed an executive order that amounted to a TikTok ban back in 2020 — has about-faced on the platform and vowed that he could negotiate a solution. President Joe Biden has also signaled his administration won’t enforce the law that takes effect on his final full day in office. Trump, whose own account on the platform has nearly 15 million followers, finds himself on the opposite side of the argument from prominent Senate Republicans who fault TikTok’s Chinese owner for not finding a buyer.

» READ MORE: Why Donald Trump is now a fan of TikTok and is inviting the app’s CEO to his inauguration

Disputes over TikTok’s ties to China have come to embody the geopolitical competition between Washington and Beijing. The United States has said it’s concerned about TikTok collecting vast swaths of user data, including sensitive information on viewing habits, that could fall into the hands of the Chinese government through coercion. Officials have also warned the algorithm that fuels what users see is vulnerable in a way that’s difficult to detect.

TikTok points out the United States has not presented evidence that China has attempted to manipulate content on its U.S. platform or gather American user data through TikTok.

Fans of the app have grown increasingly skeptical of the U.S. arguments against the platform, suggesting it’s a scheme to pigeonhole content creators into using platforms owned by stateside tech giants, like Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta (which owns Instagram, Facebook, and Threads) and Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter).

“No one involved in this decision, writing this law, or this law’s enforcement understands the schism that just happened between the American people and our country’s ‘tech bro overlords,’” said Alex Pearlman (@pearlmania500), the full-time content creator and comedian based out of the Philadelphia suburbs who has amassed 2.7 million followers on TikTok. He’s known best for yelling about politics and has been critical of recent ban efforts.

“With today’s unanimous Supreme Court decision, after overwhelming bipartisan support … and having both presidents over the last eight years at one point or another push for it, our nation’s political leadership has shown that they cannot trust the American people to freely communicate with one another in front of the rest of the world,” Pearlman said.

Corporate life content creator Sofia Javier (@iamsofiajaiver) views the ban as a blow to free speech — especially for young people.

”It’s funny, but I’ve been keeping up with the TikTok ban from users on TikTok,” said Javier, 23, who lives in Burlington Township. Javier gained over 100,000 followers on TikTok in just six months last year from posting about her commute to an accounting job in Center City, helping her bring in thousands of dollars each month as she made plans to leave an industry known for its grueling workplace culture for a job in finance at a media company.

“TikTok opened my eyes to a refreshing work-life balance,” she said.

Over the years, politicians have considered banning TikTok — with varying degrees of seriousness — over national security concerns.

“That was the time to begin taking this seriously,” said Cass Matthews (@cass_andthecity) who has gained nearly 200,000 TikTok followers posting Philly-centric restaurant and activity recommendations. “There’s always a risk with content creation that it could all go away.”

» READ MORE: Philadelphia content creators don’t care about potential TikTok ban

Matthews estimates that she stands to lose 20% to 30% of her income without TikTok. Her husband Kellen Matthews (@kellenrunsphilly) — who posts videos about running and recovering from substance use disorder for 63,000 followers — said he had a TikTok campaign planned for February with a prominent shoe company that could now be in jeopardy.

The shoe company is now “kind of waiting it out,” he said.

TikTok has been transformative for Kellen Matthews, who has been posting about his recovery journey (and marathon training regiment) since 2022. The app has allowed him to quit working 60 to 70 hours a week as a construction worker.

”I haven’t missed a single moment with my daughter, which is priceless,” he said.

ByteDance has said it won’t sell. But some investors have been eyeing it, including Trump’s former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and billionaire businessman Frank McCourt. McCourt’s Project Liberty initiative has said it and unnamed partners have presented a proposal to ByteDance to acquire TikTok’s U.S. assets. The consortium, which includes Shark Tank host Kevin O’Leary, did not disclose the financial terms of the offer.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who defended the law at the Supreme Court for the Biden administration, told the justices last week that having the law take effect “might be just the jolt” ByteDance needs to reconsider its position.

But content creators aren’t as optimistic. In fact, many are migrating their content over to other apps, such as Xiaohongshu (also known as RedNote), a Chinese social media app that combines e-commerce and short-form videos.

Still, it’s not over until it’s over, some creators insist.

U.S Rep. Ro Khanna — a California Democrat who filed an amicus brief in favor of reversing the ban — was convening dozens of content creators for a virtual briefing Friday, according to an invitation obtained by The Inquirer.

Among those attending was Edelman, who planned to ask about what creators can do over the next 48 hours.

Edelman said he makes the majority of his income through brand partnerships on TikTok, and is able to pay his rent through the platform’s Creator Rewards Program, which pays popular creators for each view received on videos that are longer than a minute.

Edelman said he made $4,000 from TikTok’s Creator Rewards Program in December. He received his last check from the app Wednesday.

Going back to corporate America is an “absolute last resort,” said Edelman. “I’d rather make six figures trying to do Instagram than make six figures trying to make it work in corporate America.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.