TikTok creators in Western Washington consider the potential impact of a national ban

President Joe Biden signed a measure into law Wednesday that would ban TikTok in the U.S., unless the social media giant is sold by ByteDance, its China-based owner, within a year.

For local content makers, the law is introducing uncertainty to the future of their business model.

"We've all watched TikTok take off at a speed that nothing else really ever has before in the social media space," said Amelia Samson, who posts comedy videos on the app and has amassed a following of more than 556,000. "I don't know if that gap will have been filled enough to be able to sustain us as creators."

"It's been frustrating for the consumer and also for the creator to see something like this passing when there are so many readily threatening things that are going on in the country that the government just can't agree on fixing," Samson said.

Like Samson, Anthony and Marlie Love of the TikTok page "Traveling While Black" also wonder what this legislation will mean for their business.

The Loves say the app has given them visibility outside of the Seattle area. More than 68,000 people follow their travels on TikTok.

Marlie Love worries about how the app’s uncertain future will impact their business right now, even before a potential ban goes into effect. Would brands, for example, still want to work with creators on a platform that could disappear in less than a year?

"It really builds community," Anthony Love said. "There was a huge need for that, because we couldn't get out and be next to each other. And I think that's only grown. So what kind of sucks about this legislation is that it's going to splinter that."

Tiktoker Hunter Ka’imi said his feelings about the TikTok bill go beyond just what this will do to his personal business.

"It has to do with huge first amendment rights," Ka'imi said. "I mean, again, taking money directly out of small businesses and people who are feeding their family with this app."

Ka’imi posts political commentary, as well as comedy videos, to an audience of over one million people. He also has his own media company in Bellingham, where he runs local businesses’ social media accounts.

Ka'imi said this decision will impact how young people view the U.S. government.

"We have issues that are pressing every single person in this country... student loans, we have inflation, homelessness, drug epidemics, gun violence, abortion rights, we have so many issues that are affecting so many people's lives," he said. "At the end of the day. I think what this shows the majority of the people that are understanding what's happening is that we can't trust our own government."

Whether TikTok will actually be banned is still an open question. ByteDance, which owns the app, has 270 days to divest. President Biden could also extend that time period by an additional 90 days.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has also promised to fight this legislation, said Cristiano Lima-Strong, a tech policy reporter with The Washington Post, and author of The Washington Post's Technology 202 newsletter, which focuses on the intersection of tech, politics and policy.

"So we're going to see this turn into likely a contentious a high stakes and potentially lengthy legal battle over the future of this app that's used by roughly 170 million Americans," Lima-Strong said.

If ByteDance can't find a buyer for TikTok, or chooses not to divest, app store companies like Apple and Google would be prohibited from offering TikTok in their stores, Lima-Strong said. Americans would no longer be able to pull up TikTok on their phones or via web pages.

Lima-Strong also said the legislation could have massive implications for free expression on the internet, and could allow the government to target other platforms as well.

"So we'll be tracking that very closely," he said.