How to protect your TikTok content if a Chinese app is banned in the US

TikTok users are in panic after President Joe Biden signed a bill requiring the social video app’s Chinese owners to sell it within nine months.

The measure — which passed the U.S. House of Representatives with broad bipartisan support, 360 to 58 — has left TikTok owner ByteDance convinced that a “total ban on TikTok in the U.S.” will soon meet the “predetermined will be the outcome.

Due to ByteDance’s refusal, 150 million Americans now worry about the fate of their videos and followers.

But there are ways TikTokers can keep their content safe even if the app is pulled from the US market, such as downloading your account information stored by the app.

The House China Select Committee has said that Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials through ByteDance are using TikTok to spy on the locations of its US users and dictate the algorithm to carry out influence campaigns, making it a national security threat .

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who introduced the measure, said TikTok is “a spy bubble in Americans’ phones” designed to “monitor and exploit America’s personal information.” .

While the government has moved to ban TikTok, Americans are coming together to fight the law — as many rely on the app as their sole income.

Gavin Dees, a TikToker who has more than a million followers but won’t reveal how much money he makes, told DailyMail.com last year: ‘Fighting for TikTok is not fighting for an app. There is a fight for the right to speak.

“It’s fighting for even people I might not believe in quite the same way. I believe in your right to believe that and speak about it that way. And TikTok makes that possible in a way we’ve never seen before.”

For people like Dees, the ban could mean losing all their work, but Jess Hunichen, co-founder of global influencer talent management agency Shine Talent Group, needs to make sure all your TikTok content is backed up, so that nothing is lost if the US imposes a ban.

TikTok influencers, content creators and even more casual users, Hunichen shared Newsweekare also concerned about the loss of the community of followers that they have worked hard to create on the app.

Fortunately, the talent agent had tips for both things.

Back up your TikTok content

Per video, it’s easy to download your own TikTok video posts from either iPhone and Android:

• First, open TikTok and scroll to the video you want to download
• Then tap the three dots to the right of the video
• From that new menu, select “Save Video” to download that video directly to your mobile device

But TikTok also allows its users to download all their account information stored by the app, although that process can be quite complex:

• To get started, you’ll need to request your TikTok details through the profile section of the app
• Once there, go to the ‘Menu’ button, three horizontal lines, within Profile and tap ‘Settings & Privacy’
• From there, tap ‘Account’ to manage your account
• Then tap ‘Download your data’

This will initiate a request that TikTok says can take days to prepare depending on how long you’ve been using the app.

Once the app notifies you that your data is ready for download, follow the same path back to the ‘Download your data’ button to start the download to your device.

Help your followers find you on other platforms

Hunichen recommended that TikTok users “consider pinning a post to your TikTok account and encouraging your audience to follow you on other platforms,” ​​which will act as a diversion board for the next nine months while the fate of TikTok remains unclear.

Although the process will be familiar to most users, here’s how to pin a video or image to the top of your profile:

• First, create the video that directs followers to your other relevant social media profiles
• Then tap the three dots in the bottom right corner of that video
• Tap the ‘Pin’ option in that menu
• The video will now remain at the top of your profile unless you replace it

Cross-post your content while shifting your priority to new social platforms

“We encourage our talent to spend time building their presence on other platforms that are not as strong as their TikTok presence,” Hunichen said of her Shine Talent Group.

“For example, they should publish TikTok videos on Instagram Reels,” she said. “They need to push their audience to Instagram to minimize the impact if a ban does happen.”

Hunichen’s view on the sector is that none of the existing marketing and advertising budgets will disappear. They will just move on to other social media platforms.

“It’s how brands can reach their audiences through trusted and vetted sources,” she noted.

“We’ll likely see big shifts and big dollars moving to Instagram and YouTube.”

Ultimately, the move could be a financial benefit for many TikTok content creators, judging by comments from industry folks on Reddit.

“As someone who runs my own social media management/rep company, you’re becoming known through TikTok and shorts,” said one manager Reddit“(but) your dedicated followers are on YouTube and Instagram.”

The short video app, they said, is great for finding new audiences, but not so good for getting paid by those audiences to do the work you post online.

“If you want to be famous, do TikTok,” the manager said. “If you want to generate revenue, you need to find dedicated followers.”