BOSTON – The Supreme Court has upheld a law that could lead to a ban of the app TikTok. Here in Boston, there’s a subset of professionals whose work takes place mostly on their phone.
TikTok content creators
Content creators can make tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars by posting videos on social media in exchange for brand deals and advertisements.
“I’m a full-time entrepreneur and content creator,” explained Britney Branch of Revere. She helps others online build their brand, while simultaneously growing her following through wellness, mental health, and lifestyle content online.
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“It really helped me to show not only my personal story, but build a community of likeminded women mostly,” she explained. “It filled a hole in me that I didn’t know was missing, and also healed me in a way. I started sharing my struggles in my challenges of mental health, and sharing some of my wellness practices… I was able to heal myself.”
Like Branch, Tommy Guarino of East Boston started his social media journey full time in 2020. He now has two million followers on TikTok, and describes his brand as “sketch comedy” with some lifestyle mixed in. His biggest videos feature skits in an Italian deli.
“I’ve made over six figures on social media, like in a year for a salary,” he said. Not only that, but he’s also built friendships with Boston celebrities – like Mark Wahlberg, Casey Affleck, and Matt Damon. Guarino has even flown on Wahlberg’s private jet.
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“[Social media work] is a 24-7 thing,” he explained. “I mean, I’m sure a lot of people, especially my parents’ generation, scoff at it a little bit because you know… They grew up blue-collar working. My whole family is blue-collar. I even worked blue-collar before all this.”
But Guarino knows that social media is his future.
Both influencers who spoke with WBZ make their primary income through content on TikTok. On Friday, the Supreme Court upheld a ban passed by Congress on the app. The government’s justification for the ban is concerns for national security since it is owned by a Chinese company. The ban is set to start on Sunday.
What will the ban mean?
“So, what happens on Sunday is somewhat unclear,” explained Abrar Al-Heeti, a consumer tech expert for CNET. “TikTok has said that it’ll go dark, so that could mean that when users open up the app, they’re actually not able to scroll through like they used to. We’ve been hearing reports that people would get a pop up that leads them to a web page about the ban, and they truly wouldn’t be able to use it.”
However, it’s unclear what will truly happen to the user experience. “But we’ve also heard that if you already have the app on your phone, then you’re good for a while. It’s just you wouldn’t get those essential updates and security updates to make sure that everything’s running smoothly and then over time it would become buggy and unusable,” Al-Heeti said.
The onus for the law is on those who own major cell phone companies to delete the TikTok app from their app stores, or risk facing billions of dollars in fines. It’s unclear, however, if the Biden administration or the incoming Trump administration will enforce the ban when it takes office one day after the ban takes effect.
“So, what it comes down to is President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office the next day he could sign an executive order. He could ask the Justice Department not to enforce this or not to fine those companies,” Al-Heeti said. “So, although the ban looks like it’s going to take effect, there’s going to be a huge changeover the following day, and potentially Trump could say, ‘actually disregard it. We’re not even going to follow through with that.'”
How will influencers make money?
Both Guarino and Branch know that if TikTok truly disappears, it will affect their bottom line. “It is a big chunk that I will lose if it goes away, so I’m not naïve to that,” Guarino said.
In response, he’s been diversifying his social media content. “I’ve already been kind of building up other platforms,” he explained. “So, my YouTube is at 200,000 subscribers; my Instagram is at 400,000.”
Guarino has career goals of breaking into comedic film and television.
Branch has taken a similar approach, working on other platforms. But she still hopes she can meet her goal of 70,000 new TikTok followers this year.
“I work with a lot of small business owners, this will dramatically change the trajectory of their business, just because of how they were able to amplify their brand on things like TikTok shop,” she explained. “Also, it’s the platform I make the most money off of. And so, I was nervous, for how this would affect me… How would I receive the data of my community? Where are all the videos going to go that I’ve worked so hard to cultivate?”
