How to protect your TikTok content if Chinese-owned app is banned in US

TikTok users are in a panic now that President Joe Biden has signed into law a bill demanding that the social video app's Chinese owners sell it off within nine months.

The measure — which passed the US House of Representatives with broad bipartisan support, 360 to 58 — has left TikTok's owner, ByteDance, convinced that a 'total ban of TikTok in the US ' will soon be the 'predetermined' outcome.

ByteDance's refusal now leaves 150 million Americans worried about the fate of their videos and followers.

But there are ways TikTokers can secure their content even if the app is pulled from the US market, such as downloading your account data stored by the app.

New legistlation - passed by the US House of Representatives with broad bipartisan support, 360 to 58 - has left TikTok's owner, ByteDance, convinced that a 'total ban of TikTok in the United States' will soon be the 'predetermined' outcome. Here's how to protect your content

The House China Select Committee has said that Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials through ByteDance are using TikTok to spy on its U.S. users' locations and dictate its algorithm to conduct influence campaigns, making it a national security threat.

House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who introduced the measure, said TikTok is 'a spy balloon in Americans' phones' meant to 'surveil and exploit America's personal information.'

While the government has moved to ban TikTok, Americans are coming together to fight the law - as many rely on the app as their sole income.

Gavin Dees, a TikToker with over one million followers but would not disclose how much money he makes, told DailyMail.com last year: 'Fighting for TikTok is not fighting for an app. It's fighting for the right to speak.

'It's fighting for even people I may not fully believe the same way. I believe in your right to believe that and to speak about that so. And TikTok allows for that in a way we've never seen.'

For those like Dees the ban could mean all of their work will be lost, but Jess Hunichen, co-founder of the global influencer talent management agency Shine Talent Group, is to make sure that all of your TikTok content has been backed up, so that nothing is lost if the US institutes a ban. 

TikTok influencers, content creators, and even more casual users, Hunichen told Newsweek, are also worried too about losing the community of followers they have worked hard to create on the app.

Fortunately, the talent agent had tips for both issues. 

How to Back Up Your TikTok Content

On a video by video basis, it is easy to download your own TikTok video posts from either an iPhone and Android:

• First, open TikTok and scroll to the video you wish to download
• Then, tap the three dots to the right of the video
• From that new menu, select 'Save video' to instantly download that video to your mobile device

But TikTok also allows its users to download the entirety of their account data stored by the app, although that process may be rather complex:

•  To start, you must request your TikTok data from the Profile section of the app
• Once there, go to the 'Menu' button, three horizontal lines, within Profile and tap 'Settings and privacy'
• From there, tap 'Account' to manage your account
• Then tap 'Download your data' 

TikTok also allows its users to download the entirety of their personal account data currently stored by the app, although that process as detailed on TikTok's support page is rather complex. If you are a veteran TikToker with a lot of data the process could take days

This will initiate a request that, according to TikTok, may take days to prepare depending on how long you have used the app. 

Once the app notifies you that your data is ready for download, follow the same path back to the 'Download your data' button to begin the download onto your device.  

Help Your Followers Find You on Other Platforms

Hunichen advised that TikTok users 'consider pinning a post on your TikTok account encouraging your audience to follow you on other platforms,' which will act as a detour sign over the coming nine-month period while TikTok's fate remains unclear.

READ MORE: TikTok CEO claims the social media giant is free from 'manipulation' by Communist Beijing after House vote

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew issued a response - in the form of a TikTok clip - after the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass legislature that could ban the platform in the United States.

While the process should be familiar to most users, here is how to pin a video or image to the top of your profile:

• First create the video directing followers to your other relevant social media profiles
• Next, tap the three dots in the bottom right corner of that video
• Tap the 'Pin' option from that menu
• The video will now stay at the top of your profile, unless you replace it

Cross-Post Your Content as You Shift Your Priority to New Social Platforms 

'We are recommending that our talent spend time to build their presences on other platforms that aren't as strong as their TikTok presence,' Hunichen said of her Shine Talent Group. 

'For example, they should syndicate TikTok videos to Instagram Reels,' she said. 'They should push their audience over to Instagram to try and minimize the impact if a ban does happen.'

Hunichen's view on the industry is that none of the existing budgets for marketing and advertising are still going disappear. They will just shift over to other social media platforms.

'It's how brands can reach their audience through trusted and vetted sources,' she noted. 

'We'll likely see big shifts and big dollars moving over to Instagram and YouTube.'

Ultimately, the move might be a financial benefit to many TikTok content creators, to judge from comments made on Reddit by those in the industry.

 'As someone who runs my own social media management/rep company you get known through TikTok and shorts,' one manager said on Reddit, '[but] your committed followers are on YouTube and Instagram.'

The short-form video app, they said, is great for finding new audiences, but not as good for getting paid by that audience to do the work you're posting online. 

'If you want to get known you do TikTok,' the manager said. 'If you want to get monetized you need to court dedicated followers.'