TikTok Stars Win In Court As October User Revenue Tops $115M

Despite Presidential orders to shut down TikTok, a court action brought by some of the platform’s biggest is helping to keep it afloat.

That’s good news for TikTok creators who earned a share of the $115 million in October user revenue spending, according to Sensor Tower.

Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0

Social video network TikTok doesn’t look like it will be shutting down any time soon thanks to an injunction brought about by some of the platform’s biggest U.S. stars. 

A filing lodged by TikTok creators Douglas Marland, Alec Chambers and Cosette Rinab successfully argued that taking down the app would rob them of their livelihoods. The trio currently have over 7 million followers on the app.

President Trump issued two Executive Orders on August 6th that outlined how the Chinese-owned TikTok and WeChat would be banned from operating inside the U.S. within 45 days of being signed. This meant that both apps had until September 20th to either sell to a U.S. company or no longer have a presence in the country.

Bytedance, TikTok’s owner, indicated that it had found a buyer in Oracle and Walmart on September 19th, but that move was never consummated. The company did win an injunction just hours before the ban was set to go into effect.

The filing of the TikTok stars puts the original executive order in limbo. The filing states:

“[TikTok] gives content creators like Plaintiffs the opportunity to profit from the videos they post on TikTok. Plaintiff Rinab, for example, creates videos for fashion brands and other companies, and earns between $5,000 and $10,000 per video. Further, the exposure Plaintiffs have obtained through TikTok has resulted in promotional and branding opportunities. For instance, Plaintiff Chambers earned $12,000 for promoting the Extra gum brand in a TikTok video. […] Without access to the TikTok app, Plaintiffs will lose access to all of these followers, as well as to the professional opportunities afforded by TikTok.”

Currently TikTok has no limitations in the U.S. and has won every court decision. The election could mean that we’ll never hear about this again unless there’s real concrete proof that the Chinese government really is behind the platform.