‘A sad, sad day’: Indiana creators face major losses if TikTok ban goes through

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Local realtor Summer Hudson has a lot to lose if social media app TikTok is banned in the U.S. Literally: she credits the app with hundreds of thousands of dollars in income per year.

“It’s sad,” Hudson said. “It’s going to be a sad, sad day for a lot of business owners.”

This spring, all but one member of Indiana’s congressional delegation voted in favor of a bill that would ban TikTok from the U.S. unless it divests from parent company ByteDance within a year.

The bill passed both chambers and was signed into law by President Joe Biden in April, amid fears that TikTok and ByteDance is passing on user data to the Chinese government.

'A sad, sad day': Indiana creators face major losses if TikTok ban goes through

Summer Hudson, a realtor with eXp Realty, films a home on E. New York Street, Friday, May 31, 2024 for her TikTok channel, Findalottolove.

The final language was included in a bill providing $95 million in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Sen. Mike Braun, who is running for governor, was the only Hoosier to vote no, telling Fox News he was “torn between civil liberties and national security.”

Because of legal challenges, the future of the new law is uncertain, but the potential ban has left a bad taste in many Indiana TikTok creators’ mouths.

‘Government is willing to hurt us’

Hudson started the TikTok account FindALotToLove, where she tours available houses in central Indiana, in 2019. Viewership picked up a year later, during the COVID-19 pandemic — so much so that she had to set up a new messaging system to handle the flow.

“People ask me all the time as a real estate agent, ‘Well, where do all your clients come from?’” Hudson, 42, said. “I’d almost say 98% of my business comes from TikTok.”

The uptick in clients she’s seen from posting on TikTok has essentially tripled her business’s income, going from around $250,000 to $750,000 per year, “in the blink of an eye,” Hudson said. She expects to make even more this year. Monthly checks from the platform itself also come in at around $2,500.

She said she sees TikTok as unique because it was created for disseminating information, unlike other platforms like Instagram or Facebook, which she sees as being for community and image sharing instead. It’s still entertaining, she said, but it’s informative entertainment.

All this means Hudson has been left disappointed by Congress’s reaction. She pointed to TikTok talking points about how some TikTok user data is stored in the U.S., not China, and that TikTok doesn’t necessarily collect more data than other apps.

While TikTok claims they don’t store U.S. user data in China, the company does store some creator financial data in China, which TikTok says is not under the same protections. And it’s true that the types of data collection TikTok uses aren’t unique, but that reflects more on the large amount of data we provide social media companies.

The ban will come down hardest on those who use it to support themselves, Hudson said.

“It’s wild to me that they don’t realize the impact this is going to have on small business owners,” Hudson said. “The amount of people I know that run their businesses now through TikTok and make a really great living and a sustainable lifestyle finally, and then you’re going to take that away from them.”

Why Indiana’s delegation mostly voted for the bill

TikTok parent company ByteDance is not technically a Chinese-owned company (it was founded by Chinese entrepreneurs but is now globally owned). However, the ban is based on concern about Chinese influence, which has become a major talking point among politicians.

U.S. Rep. Jim Banks, who is running for Indiana’s open U.S. Senate seat, has made tough-on-China policy a political cornerstone. He named himself “Congress’s most prolific critic of the Chinese Communist Party” in a 2022 press release and has sponsored or cosponsored dozens of bills concerning China. Banks declined to comment for this story, but for years has warned about what he views as the potential dangers of TikTok.

In a 2019 editorial, Banks expressed his support for an investigation into the app, questioning how TikTok uses its data and whether it threatens users’ privacy.

“I would be disturbed, but not shocked, to learn that TikTok shares secrets with the Chinese government,” Banks wrote in the editorial.

It’s not just a Republican issue, though. U.S. Rep. André Carson, who represents most of Marion County, also voted in favor of the bill.

Carson raised concerns about Chinese control, saying China’s government uses its exceptional power in “cloaking their investments, subsidies and control of companies they claim aren’t technically owned by China,” which he said is particularly concerning given TikTok’s data-tracking history. He supports divestment, and said his goal is to allow TikTok to continue to operate without any national security risks.

TikTok spread misinformation about the bill during the session, Carson said. He said the app tried to scare creators, and he heard from people who called his office because their screens froze and TikTok wouldn’t allow them to continue using the app until they pressed “contact” for Congress. To him, that’s a perfect example of TikTok’s power.

“TikTok has become part of our culture,” Carson said in a statement. “It has become a powerful tool for education, entertainment, and entrepreneurship. But with this power comes responsibility. We have a responsibility to protect consumers and ensure this tool isn’t used to infringe on our democracy.”

In a statement posted after the ban was announced, TikTok said they’ve invested billions into user data safety and to prevent outside manipulation.

“The facts and the constitution are on our side, and we expect to prevail again,” TikTok CEO Shou Chew said in a statement on the app.

‘Government is willing to hurt us’

Shortly after the law was signed, TikTok and ByteDance and a group of TikTok creators filed two separate lawsuits, arguing the ban was unconstitutional. Local TikTok users have similar concerns.

TikTok helps Brittany Spencer advertise her business: The Local Radish, a holistic store selling items like crystals, herbs and tarot cards located in Beech Grove. She started making videos during the COVID-19 pandemic since she couldn’t work, and to connect with people while isolating.

While she makes videos herself, she said the platform’s biggest contribution to her business has come from other influencers, such as Hudson, filming in the store.

“We ended up starting to be on people’s destination lists,” Spencer, 38, said. “When people are traveling through the Midwest, a lot of times they tell us that they’re stopping in because they saw this viral video on TikTok.”

She started filming to reach out across the pandemic void, and now, Spencer has organized her store with the goal of fostering connection. There’s places for people to meditate, work or film a TikTok — or all three.

She estimates that anywhere between 15% to 25% of her income comes from people who see her store on TikTok.

For her, that adds up to tens of thousands of dollars in revenue. However, that means she has that much to lose with a potential TikTok ban.

“It’s just such an amazing, free advertisement for a business,” Spencer said. “It’s just awful to see that the government is willing to hurt us in such a way, as a small community of small businesses.”

‘I’ve met all kinds of cool people’

Other Indiana TikTok users rely on the platform for its other function: entertainment. Cherie Wiser, wholesome.ish.mom on TikTok, has grown a following for her “Indiana humor” videos, where she pokes fun at the suburbs surrounding Indianapolis, and she said she gets recognized for it at least a few times a month.

“I’m just a mom and a housewife, so it’s fun,” Wiser, 44, said. “I’ve met all kinds of cool people.”

Unlike the business owners, she doesn’t make much money off TikTok — she estimated she used to bring in about $70 per million views before TikTok changed their funding model — but she also gets money from working with local companies. They’ll invite her to influencer events as advertising or to promote their products.

Meanwhile, TikTok changed Isaac Sharp’s life, he and mom Telissa Carpenter said. They started posting in 2021, and their account took off almost immediately. Sharp, 31, is autistic, and Carpenter said TikTok has given him an outlet to a bigger world.

“Sometimes with autism, it’s very secluded,” Carpenter said. “Inclusion isn’t really there as much as people think it is, so it’s really opened up his world.”

Sharp has made real-world friends on the platform, friends Carpenter said he would never have made in programs geared towards people with autism. He gets recognized in public, which has helped him develop social and interpersonal skills.

Sharp said he didn’t want to think about a TikTok ban. Similarly to Wiser, his and Carpenter’s fears aren’t based on income as much as they are on the connections they’ve made. There are other platforms they’ve considered using, like YouTube, but Carpenter said they’re not nearly as user-friendly.

“I’m more worried about the social side of it for him, and how it will impact him that way,” Carpenter said.

Arguments in TikTok and ByteDance’s lawsuit will be expedited and will likely be heard in September. For now, though, the future of TikTok is still unclear, meaning Indiana creators will have to wait and see if they’ll lose the income the platform brings in or the connection it provides.

“I’m really hoping that all of the requirements, whatever they’re requiring — the sell or whatever — goes through, because it’s just been so positive for Isaac and so impactful for his life,” Carpenter said. “I just don’t know exactly how we’re going to handle it if it comes down to that.”