They built careers on TikTok. Now they’re bracing for a possible ban
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On Friday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on TikTok’s legal challenge to the law, which the company claims violates its First Amendment rights and those of its 170 million American users
Joanne Molinaro’s life changed when she found TikTok.
She had clawed all the way up to being a partner at a big Chicago law firm after more than a decade of working in corporate litigation. And it nearly crushed her.
“I was thinking to myself … lucky me to have this job that pays my bills,” Molinaro said in an interview with CNN’s Terms of Service podcast. “And so what if it’s soul-sucking and it makes me want to curl up at night into fetal position and cry? That’s okay because this is what adults do.”
Like many people who were bored at home in the pandemic spring of 2020, Molinaro downloaded TikTok for fun. She mainly watched other people’s videos, although she also posted some cooking videos of her own. But then, one of her videos unexpectedly went viral.
Just over a year later, Molinaro withdrew from partnership at her firm to go full-time as a TikTok creator. She’s since built a brand around her profile, @TheKoreanVegan, publishing a cookbook with the same name and racking up more than 3 million followers across TikTok and Instagram.
Molinaro is just one of many TikTok influencers who are now bracing for a possible ban of the app in the United States — and the loss of her six-figure income that could come with it.
A U.S. law that could ban TikTok is set to go into effect on Jan. 19, unless the app is sold or the law is blocked by the Supreme Court.
