A U.S. TikTok ban would be bad news for Indigenous people, says northern Ontario content creator

The popular social media app, TikTok, was briefly banned in the United States on Sunday, and an Indigenous content creator from northern Ontario says that was a problem.

Vanessa Brousseau, who currently lives in North Bay, uses TikTok to share her culture and inform people about missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.

Brousseau's sister, Pamela Holopainen, was 22 years old when she went missing in 2003 from Timmins, Ont.

"I use TikTok to educate and, you know, create a community of support and awareness," Brousseau said.

"It's really something that's been very healing for me and for others."

Brousseau said the platform has become a place where Indigenous people from around the world can connect.

"I talk to people from Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, you name it, every single day," she said.

Around 35 per cent of her followers live in the U.S.

Jan. 19 marked a deadline for ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to divest itself of the app and find an American buyer.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a TikTok ban due to concerns in the U.S. that it could serve as a tool for foreign interference from the Chinese government.

But President Donald Trump – who supported a TikTok ban in 2020 – gave ByteDance assurances he would extend its deadline to find a U.S.-based partner. On his first day in office, he signed an executive order directing the Department of Justice not to enforce the ban for 75 days.

"I know a lot of people think that, 'Oh, it's just a platform, you could go somewhere else,'" Brousseau said.

"There are a lot of people who aren't able to connect outside, you know, or they have social issues or whatever reasons they're able to connect here. And this is their space."

Ron Nesrallah, an Indigenous content creator from Kapuskasing, Ont., uses TikTok to share his dance videos.

Nesrallah said he likes the platform for its ease-of-use, but added that there are other options available if a TikTok ban were to go through south of the border.

"I started a Facebook page a year and a half ago and I have like, three times more followers on there than I do on TikTok," he said. "I feel like Facebook pushes your videos up more."

Nesrallah said people would likely switch to TikTok competitors, including Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, if a U.S. ban were enforced. 

But, he said there are people who have built big followings on TikTok and rely on the platform for their income.

"I see some, when they try to switch over to Facebook, it's not going as well," he said.