That, in turn, could lead to the collapse of the entire short video ecosystem, say creators, users and experts. As short-form video becomes the primary way young people express themselves online, a ban on CapCut would stifle self-expression for millions of young people, the experts and creators note.
Since its relaunch in the United States in 2018, TikTok has transformed the video landscape. Previously, most video content was produced in a horizontal or square format. TikTok mainstreamed fast, hyper-edited, short vertical video. As TikTok exploded in popularity, short-form video became the dominant form of expression for millions of content creators and young users on the internet. TikTok-like short video features were integrated on Instagram with Reels and on YouTube with YouTube Shorts. Even Netflix and LinkedIn have rolled out short, vertical content in their algorithmic recommendation feeds.
However, producing this content is virtually impossible for the average user without the suite of editing tools in CapCut, TikTok's sister video editing app. While video editing apps and platforms existed before ByteDance introduced CapCut in April 2020, most were clunky, poorly designed, or aimed at a more professional audience, like Adobe Premiere.
The app allows any user, whether they have a TikTok account, to easily create incredibly complex and engaging videos on their phone. It makes editing tasks that previously required hours of hard work and technical knowledge as easy as clicking a button or two. That's made CapCut an essential tool for small businesses, educators, content creators, and anyone looking to create Internet-native video.
“CapCut is the foundation for all short vertical videos on the web,” says Brendan Gahan, CEO and co-founder of Creator Authority, an influencer marketing agency in Southern California. “People start with CapCut and then post to YouTube Shorts, Instagram, wherever.”
Sam Griffin-Ortiz, a video editor and multimedia artist in Oakland, said he would compare CapCut's impact on social media “to the impact of the electric guitar on music in the 20th century.”
Videos made on TikTok and CapCut are “their own language,” says Nathan Preston, who runs the meme account @Northwest_MCM_Wholesale on Instagram. Preston, like many other Instagram creators, uses the creative editing tools of CapCut and TikTok to create his videos, which he then posts to other platforms.
“I am a trained design professional,” he said. “I have Adobe Premiere, I know how to use Final Cut and all that stuff. CapCut is simpler and more intuitive. We lose something when it goes away. If it goes away, I will be less likely to make whatever I make.”
CapCut has become so synonymous with online videos that its pre-formatted video templates are often popular on other platforms, such as Instagram Reels. “Ninety percent of the Reels I see on Instagram, I can tell the exact CapCut pro template they used,” says Griffin-Ortiz.
Michael Wong, the founder of @AsianVerified, a humor media company active on Instagram and YouTube, said CapCut is essential for creating content that performs well online. “It's a specific style,” he said. “You see ads on Reddit and everywhere that are made to mimic the CapCut look.”
No other major social media platform offers the same set of creative tools as CapCut, according to its creators. Creating captions, on-screen animations, and various visual effects are all as easy as clicking a button or two on CapCut; recreating the same effects in Adobe Premiere or After Effects (other editing platforms) would take hours.
“When you make something native on Instagram, it looks cheeky,” said Wong (using the term internet slang to mean corny and passé).
Lauren Moore, the founder and creator of Book Huddle, an online book community, said content created in CapCut consistently outperforms content created with other programs. The tools the platform offers automatically make almost every piece of content more engaging, she explained.
“Most video editing tools require you to have all the tools and a vision in mind; you really start with a clean slate,” she said. “With CapCut you are about three steps further than a blank slate. You don't have to be an experienced video editor to create truly effective viral content.”
That viral content performs particularly well outside the ByteDance ecosystem. The style of editing developed by MrBeast and called “retention editing” evolved from CapCut.
“Everyone is using the same basic tools,” Noah Kettle, co-founder of Moke Media Co., a video editing and social media monetization consultancy, told The Post last month. “I've seen ten to fifteen creators use the exact same animated money-on-screen effect, and it's all from CapCut.”
CapCut users have been in an uproar since news of the possible TikTok ban broke. Some said they worried they wouldn't be able to continue making videos without access to CapCut.
“There is a unique form of artistry that CapCut enables,” Moore said. “Social media is all about connection, and a huge part of connecting with other people is creating content that provokes an emotional response or shows an emotional side of yourself. Using capcuts tools you can quickly and easily create a video to show what's on your mind, or how you think about things, and that will be so much harder to do if we don't have CapCut with us. availability.”
Many creators talked about the possible removal of these creative tools as if there would suddenly be a ban on language. They said that while older people seem to harbor a hostility toward short, highly edited video, it has become an essential mode of expression.
“It's like taking away a language from people,” Griffin-Ortiz said. “Banning CapCut would be the book burning of the digital age. I think we will look back on this time and history and see it in a lens very similar to book burnings.”
Creators immersed in the short-form online video world said returning to previous tools would feel like a step back.
“CapCut has changed the way many content creators create online video,” says Connor Clary, a Gen Z content creator and potter in Kansas City, Missouri. “Before CapCut, short video was a lot easier. It was very simple, create videos once. CapCut increased vertical video.”
Len Necefer, who runs the Instagram account @sonoran.avalance.center, aimed at raising awareness of the climate crisis, said CapCut is a crucial tool when it comes to creating media that is native to young people. “CapCut allows me to create videos and posts in a style that reaches Gen Z voters,” he said. “We've been running voter campaigns and casting ballots, and that's where we've used CapCut the most. This way we can focus on the younger audience in a playful way.”
While TikTok is the main focus of the law, the terms of the legislation are written to apply to any app that qualifies as a “foreign adversary-controlled application.” The law defines an application controlled by a foreign adversary, such as any app controlled by ByteDance, TikTok or a subsidiary of either – which presumably includes CapCut.
CapCut has received relatively little attention in the debate surrounding the TikTok ban so far. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wa.), one of the bill's architects, mentioned it twice her opening statements during a March hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, in which she alleged that CapCut is subject to the influence of the Chinese Communist Party, although she provided no evidence to support her claims.
Gahan said the TikTok ban is drastic, but abolishing CapCut could have an equally far-reaching impact on the online landscape.
If there were a CapCut ban in addition to TikTok, “a form of self-expression will disappear from the internet,” he said.
