CLEVELAND — For Stefan Johnson, TikTok brings in about a third of his income, with nearly 8 million followers on the app.
"TikTok is a second income for me and it's an outlet to express myself freely, so it's a little concerning that may be going away," Johnson said.
His focus is on food reviews in Cleveland. That landed him quite the following that led to big brand deals.
"I've worked with brands like McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Applebee's, Oreo to promote their product on my platform," Johnson said.
On Wednesday the US House of Representatives voted to pass a bill that could ultimately ban Tik Tok if the China-based owner doesn't sell its stake. Lawmakers in favor of the bill claim that the app poses a national security threat, with owner ByteDance beholden to the Chinese government.
"It will be interesting to see what happens and how this affects other social media in the future," Aimon Ali said.
Ali uses the app to grow her brand and business promoting diversity in fashion and among entrepreneurs.
"Instagram feels a lot more curated now, it's hard to also reach a strong audience, whereas Tik Tok you can easily go viral or reach an audience, the views are a lot higher, it's just a lot easier to grow there right now," Ali said.
Cleveland content creator Joey Kinsley goes by the name Sir Yacht on social media, one of his videos has nearly 5 million views.
"I would say 10% comes from TikTok right now and then the remaining 90% comes from sponsorships and brand deals that my agent will bring in," Kinsley said.
TikTok calls the legislation an attack on the constitutional right to freedom of expression for its users. The app's CEO claimed it would impact hundreds of thousands of American jobs and take billions out of the pockets of creators and small businesses.
"May it be a wake up call for you to diversify on other platforms, like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter," Kinsley said. "If you're just posting and solely focusing your business on TikTok I personally think you are making a mistake."
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