Major Social Media Ban Will Ruin Thousands Of Arizona Businesses

There may not be a more defining platform of the 2020s than TikTok. What originally started as a competitor/replacement to Vine has become something no one ever expected.

With over 2 Billion users, it's one of the largest social media sites on earth, with content creators and businesses alike relying on the platform for their livelihood. It's all about to come crashing down.

Why is TikTok Being Banned?

The answer is quite simple, it's a simple, one word phrase that's been dancing around the minds of Americans for almost a decade: China. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese based company, and the U.S. government is fearful that they are stealing user data and selling it back to the CCP.

President Joe Biden gave the company an ultimatum: either sell the site to a U.S. approved buyer, or have the app banned in its entirety in the United States. byteDance has attempted to repeal this, but to no avail.

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How Will a Ban Affect Arizona Businesses

While TikTok started as a way to share dances and comedy sketches, the site has turned into a marketing juggernaut. According to their internal analytics, around 120,000 businesses market their services and products on TikTok in Arizona ALONE.

This had been a cheap, and easy way to bring in new customers, as the cost of creating a short video by yourself is vastly cheaper than the alternatives. Many small businesses solely rely on the app to get the word out, and a full ban could set their marketing efforts back months to even years.

There are currently talks to stop the ban from happening in the U.S., and many Arizona businesses are praying that a deal will be made.

[The New York Times][KGUN 9][DemandSage]