"TikTok got 'banned?' What? Really? Why do I have to think about this now with the million other things I have to think about today?"
Don't worry, Planet Propaganda has your back. Here are some of our best answers to your burning questions:
🤔 So TikTok is actually getting banned in the US?
💡 Yeeahhh, kinda, but not for about a year, if it happens at all.
🤔 What do you mean "if it happens at all"?
💡 So yes, a law was passed by the US congress, and signed by the president, requiring TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to sell the TikTok app or face a national ban within 9 months, a deadline the president could extend by 3 months, if it happens at all.
🤔 That's the second time you did the "if it happens at all" thing. Explain.
💡 So first thing to know is that TikTok will definitely challenge this in court, likely with the position that this ban is actually a free speech violation. While we're not constitutional law scholars, that argument could win the day in what would most likely be a protracted court battle. There is also the possibility that this is all just the kind of stuff that happens in America during an election year, and that the powers that be, whoever they might be, will stop caring about this after November. Another possibility is that the US government could reverse course on its policy towards this issue. You can find a good (and recent) example of this if you do an internet search for the term "net neutrality."
🤔 I'm a brand marketer. Should I immediately pivot from anything I planned to do on TikTok?
💡 Nah, you don't need to do that. If you and your brand have a good reason to be on TikTok, and an audience you want to reach there, proceed as planned with both paid and organic content on the platform, partnerships, etc.
🤔 Ok but should I hedge my bets, work with creators and partners that have real, relevant audiences on multiple platforms, that kind of thing?
💡 Well it's always a good idea to work with relevant partners who fit with your brand and can reach an audience across multiple platforms. So yes, and keep doing that always!
🤔 Alright, worst-case scenario: TikTok gets banned (in a year or whatever). What happens then? What should we do?
💡 As Planet's strategy team would tell you, it's always best to think about the worst thing that can happen first, so we're glad you asked, but in this case, it will be annoying but not world-ending. Your audiences, your customers and creators who make these platforms worth paying attention to will pivot to existing (and similar-format) platforms like Instagram Reels (which get shared 3.5 billion times a day, per Mark Zuckerberg 😉 ) and YouTube Shorts (which get more than 70 billion daily views, per YouTube 😉 ). Plus some other new platform would probably sprout up to fill the gap and then we can all worry about what will happen to this year's platform, next year.
🤔 What if something else crazy happens?
💡 We will be here to help! 😎