Now that President Biden has signed the bill Congress passed this week requiring the Chinese owners of the popular social media app, TikTok to sell to a US company within the next nine months, or face a possible ban; a lot more is at stake than than whether or not we can continue to can stare for hours at cute cat videos.

The law, which was passed as part of a larger measure that renewed funding for war efforts in Ukraine and Israel, is a national security effort to ensure that the Chinese government cannot access the private data of US citizens. While Byte Dance, the company that currently owns TikTok, denies that is happening; there was enough concern on the part of an increasingly partisan and divided Congress to get the bill passed.

But there are real world consequences to their action.

All kinds of businesses, from solo entrepreneurs, to giant retailers, have found they can reach, engage, and profit from content they post on what has become the fourth most popular social network in America, currently used by more than 50% of the US population. So, what happens to them, if TikTok is no longer available, or it changes in a way that cuts them off from many of their followers?

To find out, we talked to an expert on Social Media Marketing; University of Akron Associate Professor of Marketing, Dr. Alexa Fox. 

Listen now.

Dr. Alexa Fox, University of Akron