ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The ban on TikTok is set to take effect this weekend.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, BYLINE: Today, the Supreme Court voted to uphold the federal government's ban, which would mean that, for millions of Americans, the app could go dark.
SHAPIRO: Some of those Americans use TikTok for their small businesses, relying heavily on it for sales that didn't exist before.
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ED MARKEY: Seven million businesses in our country that rely upon the platform.
SHAPIRO: That's Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts earlier this week, urging a delay to the ban. The business owners he's talking about are people like Morgan Gillentine, who promote or sell their products in the app.
MORGAN GILLENTINE: Being a small-business owner, it's hard enough on its own. And then just to have the rug pulled out from under you - we have other platforms, but just no other platform gives you the reach that TikTok does.
SHAPIRO: Gillentine started a lotion company with her dad in 2008. She says TikTok transformed their business.
GILLENTINE: In just a few short months, we've sold over 20,000 bottles of lotion and reached such a wide community that we would have never reached without a platform like TikTok. I would say probably about 60- to 70% of our sales are from TikTok Shop.
KELLY: Gillentine has been migrating her existing content to Facebook and Instagram ahead of the ban, but she says it won't be the same.
SHAPIRO: Alex Blomstrom feels the same way. She uses TikTok to promote her clothing brand.
ALEX BLOMSTROM: The overall feel of those platforms isn't the same as TikTok. And as much as I would love to say that my customers are going to be able to pick up seamlessly with TikTok gone, I just don't see the same kind of reach and the same consistent reach on an app like Instagram.
SHAPIRO: Blomstrom says, more than anything, TikTok makes advertising accessible. She says it levels the playing field for small-business owners.
BLOMSTROM: Compared to bigger corporations that have large marketing budgets that are able to invest in ad spend across multiple social media platforms.
KELLY: But people who support the ban, like Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, point to national security concerns with the app.
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TOM COTTON: TikTok isn't just another social media platform. TikTok is a Chinese Communist spy app that addicts our kids, harvests their data, targets them with harmful and manipulative content and spreads communist propaganda.
SHAPIRO: President-elect Trump, who takes office a day after the ban is scheduled to go into effect, says he may direct his administration not to enforce it or even push back its start date.
KELLY: Which leaves small-business owners like Gillentine and Blomstrom still watching the clock - tick tock.
(SOUNDBITE OF TIWA SAVAGE SONG, "LOST TIME") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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