Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - While a framework deal is in place, a ban on TikTok in the United State could take effect later this week. One local social media expert says the impacts will be more on the national side.
"It would be catastrophic, especially for the businesses that use that as their highest platform," said Shawn Van Patten, who helps businesses advertise on social media.
Van Patten says businesses will then be forced to go to other platforms like Instagram, but they don't have quite the following they might have on TikTok.
However, Van Patten admits he doesn't recommend TikTok for his local clients.
"TikTok, in my opinion, is not a good outlet if you're a small local business, because when it comes to spending money to run ads and market yourself on there, they don't really have an interface to target just people in the area," Van Patten said with WBEN. "If you're a restaurant that just opened in Depew and you're trying to use TikTok to get customers, a very small fraction of the people that you pay to see whatever you throw up on TikTok will really be from the area. It's kind of money wasted."
Van Patten believes any such ban of TikTok would be brief.
"We've been through this before, and if I'm right and TikTok stays and they change their conditions, there's going to be something that happens six months from now where we're going to hear up TikTok might be banned again for this reason, or this reason, or this reason alone," Van Patten said. "But at the end of the day, I feel like there's a lot of money that businesses and influencers and people make through TikTok. It would be hard to just get rid of that platform in this country completely. They'll find a way to to to make it stay, even if it means changing it up a bit for the benefit of that."
There has been a ban since Jan. 18 delayed by the Trump administration.