Minnesota TikTok stars speak out against potential ban

MINNEAPOLIS — The popular app TikTok will be banned in a matter of months unless it's sold to an American company.

The social media giant is fighting that new law in the courts and the court of public opinion.

TikTok chose to do its media presentation in the Twin Cities on Thursday at Glam Doll Donuts in south Minneapolis. Among the presenters were two local women who are thriving on the platform.

"If TikTok went away, so would my business," said entrepreneur and mom Jen Shaffer.

Since Shaffer started her own TikTok genealogy business with the account @theformidablegenealogist , she has doubled her income and works from home.

"I'm just thrilled to get out of bed every morning to work on what I love, and then I can spend more time with my daughter," she said.

Mary McGreevy is another TikTok success. Her @tipsfromdeadpeople account quotes from obituaries. She now has an astounding 141,000 followers.

"A couple of the videos popped and went viral," McGreevy said.

In April, President Biden signed a bill passed by Congress that would ban TikTok unless its Chinese parent company sells it to an American company over concerns they're giving personal information to China.

TikTok executives are fighting back, insisting its platform is safe.

"You don't just have to take our word for it. We're working with Oracle, which is a third party," said TikTok safety chief Suzy Loftus. "All of the protected data from our U.S. users are stored in the Oracle cloud and all of the source code that goes through actually goes through Oracle."

TikTok has also filed a lawsuit in federal court to block the law from going into effect.