TikTokers Put Hope in Online Campaign to Get Trump to End US Ban

Sabrina Willmer and Alexandra S. Levine
·3-min read

(Bloomberg) -- TikTok content creator Tiffany Cianci is doing all she can to persuade President-elect Donald Trump to save the popular social media app, which the government calls a national security risk.

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Cianci live-streamed outside the US Supreme Court on Friday, where justices were hearing arguments on whether to uphold the ban. She called on other TikTokers and their followers to join the campaign to flood Trump with messages and support TikTok across social media. A new law requires the app’s China-based owner ByteDance Ltd. to sell its US operations by Jan. 19 or else shut down.

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“We don’t need the Supreme Court to save TikTok,” Cianci said. “Right now we have a president that is about to be inaugurated,” she said, urging her followers to put pressure on Trump by posting comments on his X social media account. The handful of creators who joined her in front of the courthouse were a small fraction of those watching online, where Cianci estimated 180,000 people had tuned into her TikTok broadcast.

TikTok, Cianci and other users employed a similar campaign strategy last year when they flooded congressional offices with phone calls to get them to abandon the divest-or-ban legislation. While that effort failed and angered some lawmakers, Trump may be more receptive because he’s publicly called for the ban to be delayed so he can work out a settlement.

Last month, Trump said he had a “warm spot” in his heart for TikTok, which helped him garner the support of younger voters in the November election. He’s met with TikTok Chief Executive Officer Shou Chew and he sent a letter to the Supreme Court asking for the law to be paused until he takes office Jan. 20.

“This is a promise Trump made and it is a promise he used to get a large number of young people to vote for him,” Cianci said in an interview a day before the Supreme Court hearing. “We are calling on him to deliver immediately.”

Her 223,000 followers are listening. “I hope Trump is there today,” one wrote on Cianci’s livefeed. “Trump can do this,” wrote another.

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Trump’s name didn’t come up much during the two hours of Supreme Court arguments, but the government’s lawyer said it wasn’t clear that the president-elect would be able to extend the divestiture deadline after taking office.

TikTok and content creators have spoken out against a ban, arguing that it infringes on constitutional free-speech rights. Cianci wasn’t among a handful of users who sued to block the law. The US government said that TikTok’s current ownership needs to change because of the risk that China will use the platform to collect data on Americans and push propaganda.

On Friday, the Supreme Court justices signaled that they would likely uphold the law, rejecting a request by TikTok to block it. Analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence estimated TikTok has only a 20% chance of winning its legal fight. A lawyer for the app told justices Friday that the app would “go dark” and effectively shut down on Jan. 19 unless the court rules in its favor.

Still, Cianci and other content creators remained hopeful.

“I think we have a good chance to have it go our way,” said Paul Tran, who was part of the group of content creators who sued to block the ban. “If not, then Trump can come in and hopefully he will help us.”

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