Nicole Booker was in high school when she had her first viral video on TikTok. A 10-second video she filmed for fun with her friends unexpectedly blew up, receiving 5.1 million views and almost a million likes. Now, as a junior at Point Loma Nazarene University, her following on the social media platform has grown to nearly 70,000.
Money, brand deals, and business opportunities have all come along with Booker’s taste of TikTok fame. The platform she has built for herself posting lifestyle, beauty, and fashion videos now faces a period of uncertainty as the clock ticks on the popular social media app’s future following a bill that was recently passed.
On April 17, a foreign aid package was signed by President Joe Biden that included a bill that would ban TikTok if China-based parent company ByteDance fails to sell the app to another company within a year. The timeline gives ByteDance nine months to hand over the app with a possibility of an additional three if a sale is in progress.
If ByteDance chooses not to hand over TikTok, the 170 million Americans who use it – nearly half of the nation – would eventually become stripped of their access.
Booker falls perfectly within the demographic of TikTok’s target audience – 18-29-year-olds make up the largest age group of American TikTok users, according to Pew Research Center. And 62% of Americans within that age frame reportedly use TikTok, as compared to the 39% of 30-49-year-olds who say they do.
If the ban were to occur, TikTok would disappear from Apple and Google app stores, prohibiting new users from downloading it. It would eventually become unusable for those who already have the app due to a lack of updates, security patches, and bug fixes that would make TikTok unstable over time, according to AP News.
This would cause a sharp decline in the 34 million TikTok videos that are posted on the app daily.
“I’ve learned so much from just scrolling through the app; things that I would never even have known of,” said Booker. “Of course, there is going to be misinformation, but there is misinformation everywhere. I feel like so many other things are going on in the world that deserve more attention than a ban on TikTok.”
The American government’s desire to revoke the app from ByteDance’s hands comes from national security concerns. Chinese national security laws compel all organizations to assist with intelligence gathering, which means at any moment Chinese authorities could require ByteDance to hand over data on its 170 million American users, according to AP News. Lawmakers and administration officials have also expressed concerns regarding China utilizing TikTok to curate content favorable to its government.
This is the first time in US history that a law has been passed that could trigger the ban of a social media platform.
“It would be negative to our country because it would take away from our First Amendment freedom of speech rights that we are entitled to in the US,” said Giuliana Mcgilvray, a student at PLNU and casual user of the app. “TikTok is a great source of uncensored information. The content is much more real and authentic than any other social media app – it gives people a platform to speak their truth.”
The support for a TikTok ban has significantly decreased in recent months. In fall 2023, 38% of Americans said they would support a U.S. ban on the platform, down from 50% in March 2023, according to the Pew Research Center.
Dustin Perusse, another recent college grad, chooses not to use the app out of fears of it countering his daily productivity but is among the 62% who are against a nationwide ban.
“What would the Chinese Communist Party even do with the data of a bunch of teens and 20-year-olds?” said Perusse. “I honestly don’t see any positives [to the ban], except it may have been a play to pull revenue out of the Chinese economy by shifting the American short-form video ecosystem to Instagram or YouTube. There are a lot of people who can make a living off posting short-form content on TikTok that will never reach the height that they did, and realistically never make that same amount of money.”
On a standard basis, viral videos earn around 2 to 4 cents per 1,000 views – equating to around $20 to $40 per one million views. Once a user can build a large enough platform, they can join the TikTok creator fund, which allows them to bring in more money based on views, engagement, amount of content being published, and various other factors.
Booker, who recently joined the creator fund, has been able to generate a stable side income through TikTok by tapping into content engagement, partnerships with companies like Skims, and venturing into TikTok Shop – a commerce aspect to the platform that sends creators free items in exchange for promoting the product on video and pays them based on commission.
Her success on TikTok has trickled onto other social media platforms. Booker attributes a quarter of her 92,000 followers on Instagram (@nicolebookerr) coming from TikTok.
If the ban occurs, she plans to redirect the brand she has built for herself to Instagram.
“Instagram reels generate a lot of views but they are a lot more formal. On TikTok, you can post whatever and just walk away from your phone,” said Booker. “TikTok is a much more creative app as compared to Instagram or Facebook. People make videos on those apps but they’re so much more monitored. I think we would be losing a lot of free speech.”
