DFW TikTok star who quit his job now fears for his future amid potential app shutdown

The fate of TikTok could have a rippling effect on small businesses, consumers and content creators who rely on the app as a source of income.

Unless there is a buyer who is not from China by Sunday, TikTok will go dark.

It has one North Texas content creator scrambling to find a new game plan to provide for his family before the app potentially goes offline this weekend.

What we know:

Texas was one of 30 states to block the popular social media app on state-issued devices and networks.

Now, the Supreme Court says federal law is right to close the app.

AP sources say President Joe Biden does not plan to immediately enforce the ban

President-elect Donald Trump initially supported the TikTok ban, but he may throw the Chinese-made app a lifeline. He’s recently said he’ll look into ways to keep it online.

Congress passed bipartisan legislation banning TikTok last year, arguing the Chinese government could spy through the video-sharing app and influence the public, especially younger TikTokers.

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TikTok sued, saying America was violating the First Amendment right of free speech for 170 million Americans.

On Friday, the justices unanimously agreed to keep the law against TikTok unless other ownership takes over. The judges ruled the app’s threat to U.S. national security is real, even in a virtual world.

Local perspective:

TikToker Matthew Krath, from North Lake, Texas, is in despair with the Supreme Court’s recent ruling.

"I'm in shock. I haven't really processed all my emotions yet," he said.

Krath has gained two million followers on his TikTok, @matt, over the last several years. The app has provided him with a steady source of income to provide for his family and was able to quit his job in 2019.

"A lot of work that I put into something and just losing it it's going to be… feels like starting from the ground again," he said.

Experts say the ban could have a devastating rippling effect on small and medium businesses. But Krath says he’s already there.

"It's just really scary," he said.

What they're saying:

"It’s hard to do something here because this law is a lot more complicated than just, do we have TikTok or not," said David Coale, a constitution law attorney.

Trump, during his first term, tried to ban TikTok. Now, he wants to keep it. But Coale says it may be a hard fix because the law puts penalties on people who do business with TikTok.

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"Like Apple. If Apple doesn't take it out of the app store, it has a whole bunch of penalties and so on down the line," Coale said. " So a lot of companies, if President Trump comes in signs an order that says we're going to go easy on TikTok, well the people down the line are going to say, ‘What about us?’"

UNT Dallas Economics Professor Amaju Loving says small and medium businesses that have benefited from what TikTok offers could be broken by the ban.

"You have economic pressure that is created by the elimination of TikTok," he said. "Something as large as this app going away, there will be ripples, and some of them may be unexpected."

What's next:

We'll see if there is a buyer before Sunday or whether TikTok goes dark and if the president-elect can do anything to keep the app active.

TikTok's CEO plans to attend Mr. Trump’s inauguration on Monday.

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The Source: Information in this article comes from interviews with a North Texas-based Tik Tok content creator, constitutional law attorney David Coale, UNT Dallas Economics Professor Amaju and previous FOX reports.

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