As the TikTok US Supreme Court hearing continues, it’s worth pointing out one impact a ban would have: killing thousands of jobs.
We’ve been covering the TikTok saga for some time now. Currently, arguments are being heard at the US Supreme Court where TikTok is fighting against a total ban. Indeed, a ban would be terrible all the way around. Contrary to what a lower court ruled, a ban of Tiktok would be a massive freedom of expression violation.
Another thing we’ve passively mentioned from time to time is the economic impact a ban would have as well. Right now, at least in North America, people’s job prospects are really bad, generally speaking. There’s plenty of people out there who are unemployed not because they can’t be bothered to work, but because jobs are quite scant. Even when people do find jobs, decades of wage suppression and years of massive inflation has meant that the take home pay is not enough to put food on the table even though, once upon a time, it was enough to live comfortably on with a single income.
As a result, finding multiple jobs to make ends meet has become the norm to so many. Housing costs are through the roof and into the stratosphere. What once was a $21,000 home has become a $250,000, $500,000, or even a $2 million home. Fuel costs have been edging up for decades. The cost of food keeps going up. Internet access and cell phones continue to grow in expense thanks to the monopolistic ISPs found both in Canada and the US. Even worse, politician’s out there seem more inclined to help their rich buddies even more rather than lift a finger to help those who are struggling. The economic conditions – especially for people who are younger than the Boomer generation, are a disaster and many people who are living it feel that it is a hopeless situation that will never change.
It’s a big reason why so many have turned to social media for a variety of reasons. To a degree, it can be a form of escapism from the awfulness of modern living. What’s more, it can be an alternate source of income (sometimes referred to as a “side hustle”). For some, they have been able to turn their social media presence into a big business, escaping the snatching jaws of the rampant poverty of today’s society. Others have found that it helps pay the bills. Either way, social media has been able to help people tap into their inherent skills that the rest of society has generally forcibly let rot because the jobs out there don’t support those skills in the first place.
It’s what makes FMSmith319’s video so great. In his video, he lambastes the government and the media for pushing for a TikTok ban in the first place. He points out that TikTok has created many jobs for a lot of people where a number of them take home a couple hundred to a couple thousand per month to help put food on the table. To his point, few people are talking about it in the mainstream media – which is why I thought it would be great to delve into this point.
According to a study, TikTok has driven $24 billion in the US economy and created an estimated 224,000 jobs. Here’s part of that report:
TikTok delivers more than just entertainment: it fuels significant economic growth for more than seven million businesses and the U.S. economy as a whole by helping to support more than $24 billion in gross domestic product (GDP), and more than 224,000 American jobs, delivering a competitive edge to small businesses across the nation.
Today, Oxford Economics released “TikTok: Helping Grow Small and Midsized Businesses and Delivering Value for Consumers Across the United States,” a new report that quantifies the economic impact of small businesses using TikTok.
According to research conducted in the fall of 2023, SMB investments in paid advertising and marketing on TikTok drove nearly $15 billion in revenue in the US in 2023. SMBs on TikTok also placed a significant value on the free services provided by TikTok, which help them grow organically. These two value streams together supported a $24.2 billion contribution to the US GDP in 2023.
“Businesses across America depend on TikTok’s unique ability to help them reach otherwise unreachable customers, generate new revenue streams, and drive awareness of their brands, products, and services,” said Blake Chandlee, President of Global Business Solutions at TikTok. “This study demonstrates what we at TikTok already knew: it’s a game changer for small businesses and has a significant impact on the US Economy.”
This is a big part of what the US is trying to ban. The US government is basically saying to those who are one of the 224,000 people employed that your days of being a productive member of society are numbered. So, imagine if you will, in whatever job you have today, that the federal government showed up one day and said that they have randomly decided to put an end to your job. Whatever economic benefit you provide doesn’t mean a thing for them and they are shutting you down just for the heck of it. Also, your skills aren’t very easily transferred to anywhere else after all, so you’ll probably have to start from the ground up while you are at it. That’s the exact message that the federal government is sending to those who have a job thanks to TikTok.
It’s infuriating all around. To add insult to injury, it’s all being done in the name of supporting a conspiracy theory that TikTok is some kind of Chinese mind controlling device – a conspiracy theory that has precisely zeero evidence backing it. But hey, at least it satisfies xenophobia, so that’s something, right?
Ultimately, the TikTok ban stands to be a huge job killer. What’s more, American’s will find out pretty quickly what people in India learned the hard way: the process of moving over to another platform is by no means as easy as setting up an account and continuing with business as usual. It simply doesn’t work that way.
If the TikTok ban is upheld, it could be one of the biggest job killing moves the US government has ever inflicted on people in the digital world. Right now, all of that is currently hanging in the balance.
