Adam Cohen is among the more than 170 million U.S. users awaiting TikTok’s fate.

The Tamalpais Valley resident, known on the popular social media platform as “Marin Dad,” produces satirical videos about life in Marin County and promotes local businesses on social channels.

Last summer, he posted on TikTok about Trader Joe’s brief closure in Larkspur, cradling a Trader Joe’s tote bag as a sad Air Supply ballad played in the background. “That time Trader Joe’s in Marin closed for two weeks and all of Marin was in mourning,” Cohen wrote in the video.

While a U.S. ban on the platform would have a negligible impact on Cohen, since most of his audience and content is on Instagram, he noted that some users run businesses that depend on the platform.

“From a small business perspective and from an economic perspective, you could really torpedo an entire industry of a group of people who would lose their livelihoods overnight,” Cohen said. “Because of that, there is an impact on our fellow American business owners that is being considered.”

Mark Essman, chief executive officer of the Marin Convention and Visitors Bureau, said he is also mindful of developments.

“If platforms change, conditions change, criteria change, we try to adapt accordingly or we might put our focus on other platforms that better meet our needs,” he said. “We’re in a total hover pattern at this point in time.”

Essman said that his organization focuses on Facebook because it covers a broad base of clientele it is trying to attract. The group also uses the platform for advertising.

The federal ban on the social media application was to take effect Sunday, but President Donald Trump ordered a 75-day pause on the ban after he was sworn in on Monday.

The federal legislation, signed by President Joe Biden last year and recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, orders TikTok to divest itself of its Chinese owner ByteDance or be removed from U.S. app stores.

Proponents of the law cite concerns that the Chinese government could use the platform to access users’ data.

U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman shared such worries in an online video last year. The San Rafael Democrat said that ByteDance is a Chinese government-owned company that has a history of being involved in “malign political activities” in other nations.

“That’s a problem not just for things like election interference, but also because TikTok is gathering all kinds of data on you and millions of other Americans every single day — your face, your voice, where you go, what you do,” Huffman said in the video.Huffman declined to comment on a potential TikTok ban last week.

The American Civil Liberties Union has condemned the Supreme Court for failing to halt the federal legislation that could lead to the ban. The group argued that such a ban could violate users’ constitutional rights.

“The Supreme Court’s ruling is incredibly disappointing, allowing the government to shut down an entire platform and the free speech rights of so many based on fear-mongering and speculation,” said Patrick Toomey, the deputy director of the ACLU’s National Security Project.

In 2023, the Marin County Office of Education filed a federal lawsuit against social media companies such as TikTok, Facebook and YouTube for allegedly harming students’ mental health. County education officials have called upon the companies to redesign their platforms and to create protections for young users. The case remains in litigation.

John Carroll, the county schools superintendent, said a federal ban on TikTok makes sense but his concern is more about the platform’s effect on children’s mental health. He said that negative consequences include challenges in building personal relationships, reduced concentration on important tasks and a distaste for meaningful activities that don’t generate a dopamine response in the brain as quickly as social media.

Carroll said he anticipates social media companies will do their best to “re-hook” children.

“It sounds like the bright light of TikTok will dim progressively rather than shut off all at once, so those of us who care about our youth may have a chance to help free themselves,” he said. “If the fog of social media dissipates enough, parents and non-addicted peers should take the opportunity to intervene.”