in a last minute plot twist TikTok might still have a shot at overturning the ban that would block its content in America that's set to take effect on January 19th the US Supreme Court announced today it will hear a TikTok's appeal to the ruling that would force its Chinese parent company bite dance to sell or be banned in the US the Supreme Court is the last chance for the company that's become deeply ingrained in American life and business with countless content creators and business owners relying on on it to distribute their products Raven Santana spoke with several of them to better understand what a ban would mean for their bottom line I put it up it went viral and we started getting sales after sales after sales that never really stopped that video went to a million views then 7.5 million views then everything I posted kept going viral and in the process um a year and a half later TikTok is 80% of our business skip Chapman is the founder and CEO of Kafx Body.

The Manasquan- based company that uses coffee infused oil to make deodorant went viral after Chapman says he began posting videos about his product on TikTok since then he's sold over 60,000 sticks of deodorant in the US including Guam in Puerto Rico when I go live I see over 5,000 people come to our live in two hours time and they're shopping so I don't really have access in any other platform where I can do that and it didn't just get him millions of views it also made him money something he was in need of after the pandemic decimated the business at the Manasquan gym he used to own and after his family experienced a health scare we created a coffee infused deodorant strong enough to work on my trip teenage boys 7 million small businesses are on TikTok right now and contributed 24 billion dollars last year to the US economy Chapman joins millions of small business owners whose livelihoods are now at stake now that the app could be banned in the US next month today the Supreme Court announced it would hear arguments on January 10th over TikTok's last ditch effort to block a federal law intended to force the china-based parent company bite dance to sell the platform or risk a Countrywide ban starting January 19th the news comes just days after a lower court rejected TikTok's request to delay the ban it also comes after president-elect Donald Trump who supported a ban during his first term now says he wants to save the app supposed justifications for the ban is TikTok's invasive data collection practices and uh the potential for the Chinese government to I guess uh you know have access to that data but you know if the problem is with TikTok's invasive data collection practices really that's a problem with many maybe all social media platforms if lawmakers are really concerned as they should be with these invasive data collection practices the answer is not to ban uh an entire app it's to uh it's to reform the industry George Wang is Staff attorney for night First Amendment Institute when Wang says he is confident TikTok has a case these users undoubtedly exercise their first amendment rights when they use TikTok to express themselves to get their news uh to connect with the people and communities they care about uh and yes even to be entertained and shutting down TikTok would even for just a day would be a big deal not just for you know content creators on TikTok but everyone who shares and Views uh content on TikTok as well and it really sets a dangerous precedent for how we regulate speech online this new Safari experience in New Jersey is going to blow your mind slowly as time has gone on I have noticed that people have stopped like um sponsoring reaching out about sponsorships on TikTok so it's already been affecting that thankfully that's why I made the switch earlier the year to focus more on Instagram and so now I have more sponsorships on there Christine Perez ditched her 9 to 5 in September 20123 after her lifestyle and travel page on TikTok went viral and became lucrative she says after hearing rumbles about the potential ban she now is forced to Pivot and says she's already noticed a negative impact on the platform one of the very first big deals I got was like for $111,000 that was in the fall of last year I haven't had a deal that big since last fall if anything I've had those kind of deals on Instagram but not on TikTok the Supreme Court is now scheduled to hear arguments on January 10th that's just nine days before the law could go into effect putting millions of people who rely on the platform like Chapman and Perez at risk of losing their livelihood for NJ spotlight news I'm Raven Santana [Music]