Creators can succeed elsewhere if TikTok is banned, Warner says

If TikTok is banned nationwide, Sen. Mark Warner believes creators who make their living off the app will be able to succeed on other social media platforms.

“I absolutely believe in the market if TikTok were somehow to drop away tomorrow,” Warner (D-Va.) said on CNN Thursday morning. “Whether it's an American company, a French company, an Indian company, there will be a replacement site where people can still be creative and earn that kind of living.”

Warner’s comments came an hour before TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. It’s expected to be an uphill battle for the social media executive, who faces the arduous task of convincing lawmakers — some who are already in favor of a nationwide ban — that the video-sharing platform doesn’t pose a threat to national security due to its ties with China.

Earlier this month, Warner, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, introduced the bipartisan RESTRICT Act, which would give the federal government power to restrict and potentially ban the app.

As for other platforms creators could transfer their skills to, the Virginia senator referenced the success of many YouTube users in turning a profit, as well as “other American sites” that “at least reimburse at a higher level” than TikTok does.

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), who also signed onto the RESTRICT Act, echoed Warner’s comments on MSNBC shortly after: "We've got other platforms, there are other platforms.”

The senators’ comments also follow a push by TikTok creators to oppose the ban during a Capitol Hill press conference Wednesday evening, spearheaded by Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), the app's first major ally in Congress.

When asked about potential threats from other social media giants that collect data on American users, Warner emphasized that laws pertaining to those sites also need reform — including Section 230, he said, “which frankly gives these American sites a get out of jail free card. … I think Congress ought to act on that.”

But TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance poses too much of a threat to wait, Warner said. “As chairman of the intelligence committee, I believe TikTok poses a national security threat, and before all the potential bad action takes place, we ought to act."