ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The potential TikTok ban has been making headlines, leaving users and businesses scrambling. For now, the app is safe, but its future remains uncertain. If the ban happens, it will impact not only users and businesses, but also influencer agencies that rely on the platform.

Hope Tomaselli, owner of Local Influencer Tour (LIT), represents TikTok influencers like Lys Luzolo. For now, TikTok is here to stay, but a potential U.S. ban could change everything.

“As an international agency, it doesn't affect me, because if it ends here, well, I still have my team in other parts of the world, but it does affect the influencers who are in my agency, the content creators who are in my agency,” Tomaselli explained.

What You Need To Know

  • The potential TikTok ban has sparked widespread concern leaving users, businesses, and influencer agencies preparing for its uncertain future

  • Hope Tomaselli, owner of Local Influencer Tour, reassures that her international agency can adapt if need be

  • With a 75-day extension granted, TikTok remains in limbo, and creators are diversifying to other platforms to safeguard their futures

Influencers like Luzolo worry about losing the livelihood and community they’ve built with the agency’s help.

“I've gotten a lot of opportunities to do brand deals and go to New York City and just do all these events that I would have never imagined doing,” Luzolo shares.

TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, also owns popular apps like CapCut, widely used by influencers and creators. For Tomaselli and her clients, the app’s future is uncertain, so they’re preparing to switch to other platforms if needed.

“The TikTok ban is not just TikTok, it's ByteDance. Instagram is hopping on that. They're coming out with Edits, which is going to be the Instagram version of CapCut. But that means relearning a whole other app,” Tomaselli says.

Luzolo is already planning her next steps.

“I am going to be starting on YouTube pretty soon. With this whole TikTok thing and the uncertainty of it, I kind of just want to establish myself on other platforms and just kind of have, like, a safety blanket," Luzolo said. "But I also am still going to be on TikTok as long as it lasts. And, hopefully, it stays.”

As an international agency, Tomaselli can continue supporting her U.S. clients for now, ensuring they stay connected to their audience despite any uncertainties.

“The fact of the matter is there are people whose lives are going to be affected in more ways than just, ‘I hate that we lost this app,’” Tomaselli added.

With a 75-day extension granted, TikTok’s future in the U.S. remains uncertain. YouTube star MrBeast is among several wealthy figures who want to step in.