Believing a potential ban on TikTok would crush his sales, the owner of an Atlanta-based beauty brand has filed suit against the U.S. government with seven other social media creators to block a new measure that would force a sale or potentially ban the video app.
The creators argue the law will “shutter a discrete medium of communication that has become part of American life,” and, in turn, violates their First Amendment rights, according to the 33-page complaint filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.
Paul Tran started posting on TikTok to advertise the skincare brand he and his wife founded, Love & Pebble, in 2021. The duo found a much broader audience with TikTok compared to other apps, and the company sold out of its entire inventory within the first month, a difficult feat for the competitive skincare industry. They eventually began selling their products directly through TikTok’s integrated e-commerce platform, which now accounts for 90% of the company’s sales.
“We found something that’s working for us,” Tran said, who lives in Chamblee. “[A ban] would destroy us, and we’d have to start all over.”
The lawsuit comes about three weeks after President Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which requires Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell its stake within 12 months. If the company does not sell to a government-approved buyer during that window, TikTok would be banned from U.S. app stores and web-hosting services.
The eight creators in the suit come from various professions, political backgrounds and areas of the country, and are “united in their view that TikTok provides them a unique and irreplaceable means to express themselves and form community,” said the complaint, first reported by multiple national outlets.
Other creators include a cattle rancher from Texas, a recent college graduate from Charlotte who educates followers on social justice issues and a baker from Memphis.
TikTok is one of the most active social platforms in the world. About 170 million Americans use TikTok each month, and more than 1 billion across the world.
For years, U.S. lawmakers have expressed concerns that TikTok and ByteDance may provide sensitive information about its users to the Chinese government. In 2020, former President Donald Trump ordered a ban on TikTok and another Chinese-owned app WeChat from U.S. app stores. The following year, Biden withdrew the measure, though ordered a national review of security concerns poised by apps with ties to “foreign adversaries.”
Interested buyers have emerged. Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Shark Tank personality Kevin O’Leary and billionaire Frank McCourt have all separately expressed interest in lining up partners to buy TikTok.
Desiree Hill, a creator who runs a mobile mechanic and auto repair shop in Conyers, says she owes the success of her business to TikTok.
Desiree Hill
Desiree Hill
After she and her son started fixing up and reselling older cars, she began posting videos to the app in 2020 to document their work. The content took off.
Hill, who is not a party to the lawsuit, started to get calls from people as far as Alabama and South Carolina asking her to fix their cars. Her business tripled within a year, a feat she wasn’t able to accomplish when she was just advertising on Facebook.
About nine months ago, she opened up her first brick-and-mortar repair shop, and has since hired six mechanics, two of whom found her through the app. It’s called Crown’s Corner Mechanics. She started renting out space in her building to other businesses, too.
For both Hill and Love & Pebble owner Tran, TikTok isn’t just a platform to sell product. It’s a way to directly interact with customers.
“I’m able to reach people who would not normally think they would need a mechanic,” Hill said. “I’m showing them that I know what I’m doing, here’s the proof. Here’s what happened when this vehicle came in.”
Hill says that a ban on TikTok could be detrimental to her business. She said she would’ve joined the lawsuit if she could.
“You don’t go to the mechanic shop like a hairdresser. People aren’t going to keep coming every couple of weeks to keep our income afloat. I won’t be able to reach people,” Hill said.
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