A looming TikTok ban could affect the millions of small businesses that use the short-video social media app to help them grow their business.
Desiree Hill, owner of Crown’s Corner Mechanic in Conyers, Georgia, started her business solo as a mobile mechanic. Sharing videos of her work on TikTok helped spread the word and she became so popular she was able to open a 9,000 square foot brick and mortar shop with five employees 18 months ago.
“Every day I get at least two to three customers that have seen me on TikTok, watched my videos and wanted to become a customer,” she said.
Though TikTok has been around only since 2016, small business owners use the platform in a variety of ways, from growing a customer base to advertising and marketing, as well as selling goods directly from the site.
According to TikTok's own estimates, small businesses on TikTok would lose more than $1 billion in revenue in a single month if the ban goes into effect.
The Justice Department ordered the app's China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell TikTok or face a U.S. ban by Jan. 19, citing security concerns. The Supreme Court will take up the matter in January. President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office Jan. 20, has asked the Supreme Court for a delay.
If a ban does occur, small businesses will have to migrate to other platforms to find their customers. Instagram Reels, SnapChat and YouTube Shorts are alternatives. The good news is brands likely already have a presence there. But it may be harder to reach teens that have made TikTok their preferred social media app.
Another alternative is to build a strong database of customers that opt in to providing contact emails or phone numbers. That lets owners reach out directly to customers with promotions and other marketing messages.
But Crown Corner Mechanic's Hill said she is worried that other sites may not have the reach that TikTok does. She has a presence on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, but it's not the same, she said.
“I am worried because there is no preparation for this,” she said. “It holds such a significant place in regards to my customer base and how I reach customers that if I lose TikTok, I will lose a large part of my business or I will lose my ability to grow anymore.”
Crystal Lister is the owner of Mommy and Me: The Listers, in Cypress, Texas, which offers interactive workshops about STEM education. She's working on pivoting to YouTube for videos and Instagram Reels for teasers to direct people to YouTube, but said TikTok is easier.
“It is going to be a challenge if TikTok is banned because we’re losing kind of all the functionality you want — the ability for a video creation, the ability to spread the word via social media,” she said. “So we’ll have to use many other platforms to supplement what TikTok did in one.”
FILE - A TikTok sign is displayed on top of their building in Culver City, Calif., on Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)
PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — A top-level meeting in Montenegro on Friday looked for ways to curb illegal weapons after a gunman fatally shot 12 people in a second such tragedy in less than three years in the small Balkan country.
An emergency session of Montenegro's National Security Council is expected to call for a new gun law and urgent actions to confiscate what are believed to be abundant illegal weapons in possession of Montenegro's 620,000 citizens.
The Adriatic Sea nation has a deeply-rooted gun culture. State television broadcaster RTCG reported that Montenegro is sixth in the world when it comes to the number of illegal weapons per capita.
The gunman who killed a dozen people in a shooting rampage in the western town of Cetinje on Wednesday did so with an illegal 9 mm gun. Police have said they found 37 casings at the shooting locations, and more than 80 additional pieces of ammunition in the gunman's possession.
The 45-year-old man, identified as Aco Martinović, eventually shot himself in the head and died shortly after. He is believed to have snapped after a bar brawl, and went home to get his weapon before launching a bloody rampage at several locations late Wednesday afternoon.
Martinović's victims included seven men, three women — among them his sister — and two children, born in 2011 and 2016. Four more people were seriously wounded and remain hospitalized.
Police Commissioner Lazar Šćepanović has described Wednesday’s shooting as “one of the biggest tragedies in the history of Montenegro.”
The shooting has fueled concerns about the level of violence in Montenegrin society, which is politically divided. It also raised questions about the readiness of state institutions to tackle the problems, including gun ownership.
Hundreds of people throughout Montenegro lit candles in silence on Thursday evening in memory of the victims, while also calling for answers as to why the shooting happened. Many were angry at the authorities for not doing more to prevent such tragedies and protests are being planned for the coming days.
Mira Škorić, a retiree from Podgorica, said that “I can’t believe that we failed so much as a society. We failed as people too.”
In a separate massacre in August 2022, an attacker killed 10 people, including two children, before he was shot and killed by a passerby in Cetinje, which is Montenegro’s historic capital located about 30 kilometers (20 miles) northwest of the capital, Podgorica.
The shootings “require a serious examination of the responsibility and preparedness of the security system," the Human Rights Action and Women’s Rights Center groups said in a statement. “What has changed in the security system in Cetinje since 2022?"
Police have said that Martinović’s actions weren't planned and were impossible to predict and prevent, though he had been convicted in the past for violent behavior and illegal weapons possession, and had received psychiatric treatment.
Vesna Pejović, a Cetinje resident who lost her daughter and two grandchildren in the shooting back in 2022, said police had to do more to protect the citizens after the first killing.
“What kind of state and system is this where children are getting killed? Are we at war?” she asked. "Where were the police?”
Jovana Gec and Dušan Stojanović contributed to this report from Belgrade, Serbia.
A view of an empty street, two day after a shooting in Cetinje, 36 kilometers (22 miles) west of Podogrica, Montenegro, Friday, Jan 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Risto Bozovic)
Police officers stand guard at the home of a gunman after a shooting incident, in Cetinje, 36 kilometers (22 miles) west of Podogrica, Montenegro, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Risto Bozovic)
People light candles for the victims of the yesterday's shooting rampage in Cetinje, in Podogrica, Montenegro, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Risto Bozovic)
People light candles for the victims of the yesterday's shooting rampage in Cetinje, in Podogrica, Montenegro, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Risto Bozovic)
A man walks past death notices of victims of a shooting in Cetinje, 36 kilometers (22 miles) west of Podogrica, Montenegro, Friday, Jan 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Risto Bozovic)
People light candles for the victims of the Wednesday's shooting rampage in Cetinje, in Podogrica, Montenegro, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Risto Bozovic)
