Ben Thompson
With the looming TikTok ban just days away in the US, many influencers who call the platform home will likely be considering their next move.
According to Charle, TikTok has 1.6 billion active users, making it the fifth most active social media platform, just behind Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp.
However, the app is facing a ban in the US which is set to occur in the next couple of days - which was, in turn, influenced by lawmakers accusing ByteDance, the company who owns TikTok, of having links with the Chinese government, which they have continuously denied.
While a federal appeal to ban TikTok was overturned last year, many hope that newly-elected President Donald Trump will veto it.
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Because of it's wide reach, many famous faces began their career on the app - with the most popular to date being the D’Amelio sisters.
Charli and Dixie both started out on TikTok and have since grown to create huge careers for themselves, though they still hold some weight on the site with Charli being the second-most followed person at 155.7 million followers, as per Dexetro, while Dixie sits at 55.3 million.
Forbes also reported that the D’Amelio sisters have earned more than $70 million since 2020, and since shooting to fame, they have used their status to promote products for Amazon, Prada and Abercrombie.
And now, their dad Marc D’Amelio has spoken out against the ban and condemned it as ‘un-American’.
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In an interview with The Times, he said: “It’s so un-American for our government to ban something that has been such an important part of the average American citizen’s life - having a platform for free speech, and protecting our First Amendment rights.
“We’ve been on TikTok for almost five years now, starting when it was in its infancy, so we have been able to leverage all of the positive things that we got from TikTok with other platforms.
“For anyone, for half of their business or their potential following to disappear would be impactful. I do think we’re blessed and lucky to have been able to be involved with TikTok for five years.
“I’m more concerned about the people who are new, and have used the platform to help their small business. And I’m concerned about these smaller creators, that depend on TikTok for income. For that to be shut down, when maybe they haven’t had the longevity on the platform we’ve had, is sad.”
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Marc is also critical of the reasoning behind the ban, adding: “If somebody in China knows my whereabouts, or knows that I watch this kind of content, no one’s able to articulate how that will affect me in any way.
“If the government is going to protect us from that, are they protecting us from every other platform that could spoon feed us information?
"If we’re going to do that, let’s do it for all platforms and not just single out TikTok.”
Despite his objections, however, it appears that he’s not too worried about his family’s future, according to The Times.
While this may be the end of TikTok in the US, another app has since risen as the most downloaded app following the news.