SACRAMENTO, Calif. — TikTok, the hugely popular social media platform, now stands on the brink of a forced sale after the United States House of Representatives passed a measure to ban the app unless it separates from its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance.
The app isn’t just for entertainment, it’s helped businesses like the Sacramento History Museum stay afloat.
“We were never in it for the money,” said spokesperson Jared Jones. “However, in 2021, TikTok was giving $7 million out to nonprofits during giving season, and we received $25,000 from TikTok just because we're awesome and great, and they wanted to support nonprofits."
The Sacramento History Museum’s TikTok account has over 2.7 million followers and gets tens of thousands of views on their videos, which they started posting nearly four years ago.
"(TikTok) had something that no other platform at the time had, and that was like a ‘For You Page’ where it's literally just the endless stream of videos. And anybody, whether you have five followers or a million followers, are weighted the same on potentially going viral,” said Jones.
All that attention brought donations to the nonprofit, something they worry could disappear if the app is banned in the United States.
Jones says the money isn’t their only concern as they’ve built a community with their fans and are able to share history and information with everyone.
“We're not only reaching people who could visit our museum, but we're also reaching people who will never be able to really visit our museum,” he said. “We have an international following, people all over the world tune in to watch our stuff.”
The FBI and other security officials say TikTok poses a national security threat, but TikTok’s CEO says the company keeps American user information on U.S. servers.
The Senate will now have to take a vote on the bill. If they do and it passes, President Joe Biden says he will sign it into law.
