Will the US ban TikTok this month? That’s the pressing question keeping creators and small business owners in anxious limbo as they await a decision that could upend their livelihoods.
The fate of the popular app will be decided by the Supreme Court, which will hear arguments on January 10 over a law requiring TikTok to break ties with its Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, or face a US ban.
At the heart of the case is whether the law violates the First Amendment with TikTok and its creator allies arguing that it does. The US government, which sees the platform as a national security risk, says it does not.
For creators, the TikTok doomsday scenarios are nothing new since President-elect …