Cyber influencers will miss TikTok, too

Even some cybersecurity professionals are upset about TikTok's potential shutdown in the U.S. this weekend.

Why it matters: Lawmakers passed the "divest or sell" law because of national security and data collection concerns.

• No one understands those concerns better than cybersecurity influencers who use their platform to educate the masses about data security and privacy issues.

State of play: As of now, TikTok is planning to turn off services in the U.S. on Sunday, the deadline for ByteDance to divest its stake in TikTok.

• The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to uphold the law, but President Biden doesn't plan to enforce it Sunday — leaving President-elect Trump's team in charge of finding options to bring it back online next week.

Zoom in: Caitlin Sarian — an influencer who posts as Cybersecurity Girl and has more than 456,000 TikTok followers — told Axios that the short-form video app is the best platform to reach a wide-ranging audience, rather than just her followers.

• Sarian said she's preparing to migrate her focus over to Instagram, where her following has swelled to 907,000 followers, and LinkedIn if TikTok fully shuts down.

Other influencers have been posting on TikTok throughout the week about how much they've gained from the platform.

• "I don't see how TikTok being banned is going to be a net positive on my life," said cybersecurity influencer Moshe, who posts under the handle ChiefGyk3D, in a video this week.
• He has around 370,000 TikTok followers and also posts on Discord, YouTube, Twitch and BlueSky.

The intrigue: Sarian, the former global lead of cyber advocacy at TikTok, also said she doesn't think the ban will do much to help protect Americans' data.

• "I understand people's sentiment around the China situation because we are in cyber warfare," she said.
• "But if I'm looking at it from my perspective, there's a lot bigger fish to fry than banning this app totally."

Yes, but: Don't expect cybersecurity influencers to flock to Red Note alongside everyone else.

• Sarian joked she would consider it only if she had a burner phone dedicated solely to using the China-based social media app.