TikTokers in our state are scrambling to figure out what to do following the Supreme Court decision.
It ruled a ban on the app can go forward, potentially as soon as Sunday.
“It all kind of feels like a prank. I don't know. We're just waiting to see what's really going to happen,” Annya White-Brown, @naturalannieessentials, said.
Small business owners – including at Natural Annie Essentials – say TikTok has helped boost sales. The candle company is located in Bridgeport.
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
“People love to say we're a hidden gem, but it's really hard for people to find us, and Tiktok has helped us tremendously over the years to pull people in,” White-Brown said.
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law that will shut down the app on Jan. 19.
TikTokers in Connecticut are now preparing for the end of the platform.
Local
“Definitely a little bit disappointing. And feeling for the other small businesses as well,” Sean O’Connor, @cocktailsandthecarriage, said.
Cocktails and The Carriage is a mobile bar for events and the owners say the app has helped drive business their way.
“This morning I went and saved all our videos to make sure they weren't, you know, we had them,” Hunter O’Connor, @cocktailsandthecarriage, said.
Starting Sunday, web companies will be stopped from hosting TikTok and it will disappear from the Apple and Google’s app stores.
Users will still have access if it’s already downloaded to their phones, but updates won’t be available and it will eventually become unworkable.
“At least according to the Supreme Court, this is about the national security interests with respect to a foreign adversary,” Wayne Unger, Quinnipiac University law professor, said.
While there are signs the Biden administration won’t enforce it and President-elect Trump might try to keep the app available, Unger said tech companies that don’t follow the ban could open themselves to future punishment.
“There's still this risk of penalty and fines that the companies will have to essentially roll the dice on and see whether they want to take that risk from a business perspective,” Unger said.
TikTok had argued the app could not be used as a tool of the Chinese government as alleged, selling it would be difficult and a ban was unconstitutional amid free speech concerns.
On The Dam Tok, David Milton has racked up more than a million likes of his food reviews in the state and he thinks the platform offers a chance to be paid for creative content.
“I know creators who this is their living, you know, this is their full-time job,” Milton said.
He said while he and others are holding out hope the app can be saved, many are preparing in case that doesn’t happen.
“There's a lot of sort of last minute, you know, a last-minute push on the part of a lot of creators to share their other platforms,” Milton said.
