If The US Tik-Tok Ban Goes Ahead How Will This Impact Smes And Marketers In The UK?

The Tik-Tok story reads like a classic riches to rags saga for the digital age. A new social media platform disrupts existing patterns of social media use around the world, and captures the imagination and attention spans of the youngest generation. In late 2024 there were over one billion registered global accounts on the platform. But then the platform falls out of favour with the US Biden administration due to its alleged links to (and control by?) the Chinese state. High drama indeed.

Grab A Coffee And Pull Up Your Chair For A Moment…

American lawmakers were concerned that Tik-Tok’s owners, the Chinese company ByteDance, could leak user data to the Chinese government if requested, posing a national security risk. Large Chinese companies don’t operate in the same way as their American and European equivalents. The Chinese government always has some sort of stake in a corporation, and often appoints directors. The result was that Tik-Tok was classified as a Foreign Adversary Controlled Application under US law. But that wasn’t the end of the story. In April last year (2024) the then president Joe Biden pushed through legislation that required ByteDance to sell Tik-Tok to a US owner within 12 months, or shutdown.

ByteDance responded by suing the US federal government in May 2024, claiming that the law violated the American first Amendment to the Constitution. It was also around this time that Tik-Tok gained a powerful potential new ally in the US in the form of former president and election hopeful Donald Trump.

We all know that since then, Donald Trump was successfully re-elected and sworn in as president. While he was still president elect, at the end of December 2024, Trump requested that the Supreme Court pause the Tik-Tok ban from going ahead until he could find a ‘political resolution to the issue’. The Tik-Tok CEO was a prominent guest at the Trump inauguration, so clearly he was also hopeful about this. However, on 17th January this year (2025) the US Supreme Court unanimously upheld the law forcing Tik-Tok to shut down, validating the potential risk to natural security posed by the company’s ties to the Chinese government. The ban came into effect on 19th January 2025. (A more detailed timeline can be found here – it’s complicated.)

So For Now At Least, No More Tik-Tok In The USA.

But where does that leave SMEs and marketers in the UK who have invested in the Tik-Tok platform? On paper at least, it’s business as usual, with the possible exception being UK-based B2C businesses that use Tik-Tok to market to American customers.

Tik-Tok can still be used freely and downloaded as before in the UK, the EU, and the rest of the world. However, given the interconnected nature of social media in global markets, there could be indirect consequences for British SMEs and marketers who use Tik-Tok as part of their outreach strategy.

The social platform’s links with the Chinese government and potential holes in their data security policy certainly haven’t done Tik-Tok any favours with British businesses. This reputational damage could dissuade British businesses and their customers from using the platform, in favour of Instagram Reels or YouTube shorts.

On the positive side, however, if Tik-Tok’s global ad revenue drops or growth stagnates because of the US ban, the platform could actively try to court British and European customers through lower advertising costs or by increasing ad inventory availability. This could be beneficial for small businesses looking for an entry into Tik-Tok social media advertising.

Don’t rush in with your wallet quite yet though. There is also a strong possibility of a copycat backlash against Tik-Tok among UK and European legislators, followed by, if not an outright ban, then restrictions on use that could limit its utility as a business tool.

What To Do?

If you already use Tik-Tok as part of your marketing strategy there isn’t any need to change what you are doing yet. However, it’s worth having an eye on the future and to explore other potential sales channels to diversify your marketing strategy in case there is a ban or changes in the platform in the near term. And if you’re not on Tik-Tok yet? Don’t invest too much money on advertising and establishing a presence until the situation is more certain. These are still very much evolving circumstances. The best thing to do is to wait and see. Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are both excellent alternative video marketing platforms to Tik-Tok, with the added benefit of a broader demographic base.

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