Savannah James could be set to lose one of the joys in her life as the United States Supreme Court prepares to decide whether to ban TikTok, the social media app owned by the Chinese ByteDance company.
Controlling the app has been a long-term policy of the federal government regarding fears TikTok could potentially hand Chinese state officials sensitive data about the habits, activities and trends of American citizens.
There is also worry about propaganda, bias and other manipulations in a similar wave to the anti-communist Red Scare from the 1920s and 1950s, although so far it is not nearly as violent and bloody.
All the same, the app is used by around 170m people in the USA and earned a revenue of $16bn (2023), with adults consuming around an hour of screen-time per day. Yet this could all change within weeks.
The Supreme Court is set to ban the social media site within its borders and this could be a devastating blow to Savannah, who is the wife of the Los Angeles Lakers and NBA legend, LeBron James, who loves the app.
“We cannot put TikTok in the same category as social media,” Savannah said on her Everybody’s Crazy podcast. “It is informative.
“It tells you everything you need to know. Anything you want to learn. I’m a very curious person so that draws me in and it keeps me there okay?”
The 38-year-old can often be spotted dancing with her daughter, Zhuri Nova, in videos that allow fans of the James family to keep up with their daily lives away from the court at the Crypto.com Arena.
Another video has shown Savannah and Zhuri with their older brothers, Bronny and Bryce, playing the What’s in the Cup challenge. Bronny plays for the Los Angeles Lakers too whilst Bryce is poised to go to college basketball soon.
TikTokers flock to Chinese alternative
Perhaps even more concerning for the fears of the Supreme Court and government is the news that thousands, if not millions, have moved over to RedNote/Xiaohongshu and have been openly welcomed by Chinese people.
Ironically doing the thing the Supreme Court aims to prevent, users within the Asian nation have contested long-term claims about China such as the social credit system. The Mandarin name translates literally too Little Red Book, which was written by the communist Mao Zedong.