How a TikTok ban would affect the influencer economy

Last week, the Trump administration began to issue executive orders sanctioning Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat, specifically banning “transactions” between US entities and the apps’ parent companies, ByteDance and Tencent.

Though there are many questions about how this ban could actually work, the ramifications of forbidding Americans to use a smartphone app sets a precedent for the future of the open and creative internet. Perhaps there is not enough discussion about how a ban on the “coolest” app in the US would affect the people who made it cool — the creators.

This week on our Vergecast interview series, Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel talks with Taylor Lorenz, internet culture reporter for The New York Times about what might...

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