This, in turn, could lead to the collapse of the entire short-form video ecosystem, creators, users and experts believe. As short-form video becomes the primary way for young people to express themselves online, a ban on CapCut would stifle the expression of millions of young people, experts and creators note.
Since its relaunch in the United States in 2018, TikTok has transformed the video landscape. Before this, most video content was produced in a horizontal or square format. TikTok has integrated short, hyper-edited, fast-paced vertical videos. As TikTok grew 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-form video features have been integrated into Instagram with Reels and into YouTube with YouTube Shorts. Even Netflix and LinkedIn have deployed short-form vertical content in their algorithmic recommendation feeds.
However, producing this content is nearly impossible for the average user without the suite of editing tools from TikTok’s sister video editing app, CapCut. Although 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 makes it easy for any user, whether they have a TikTok account, to create incredibly complex and engaging videos on their phone. It makes editing tasks that would previously have required hours of arduous work and technical know-how as simple as clicking a button or two. This makes CapCut an essential tool for small businesses, educators, content creators, and anyone looking to create native videos on the internet.
“CapCut is the foundation of all short-form vertical videos on the Internet,” said Brendan Gahan, CEO and co-founder of Creator Authority, an influencer marketing agency in Southern California. “People start on CapCut, then post to YouTube Shorts, Instagram, everywhere.”
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 created on TikTok and CapCut are “their own language,” said Nathan Preston, who runs the @Northwest_MCM_Wholesale meme account on Instagram. Preston, like many Instagram creators, leverages the CapCut and TikTok suite of creative editing tools to create his videos, which he then posts to other platforms.
“I’m a trained design professional,” he said. “I have Adobe Premiere, I know how to use Final Cut and all that. CapCut is simpler, more intuitive. We lose something if it disappears. If that goes away, it will make me less likely to do what I do.
CapCut has become so synonymous with online videos that its pre-formatted video templates frequently trend on other platforms, such as Instagram Reels. “Ninety percent of the Reels I see on Instagram, I can identify the exact CapCut pro model they used,” Griffin-Ortiz said.
Michael Wong, founder of @AsianVerified, a comedy media company that operates on Instagram and YouTube, said CapCut is essential for creating successful content online. “It’s a specific style,” he says. “You’ll see ads on Reddit and everywhere designed to mimic the CapCut look.”
No other major social media platform offers the same suite of creative tools that CapCut offers, the creators said. Creating captions, on-screen animations, and various visual effects is as easy as clicking a button or two on CapCut; recreating these same effects in Adobe Premiere or After Effects (other editing platforms) would take hours.
“If you create something natively on Instagram, it looks cheesy,” Wong said (using the internet slang term to mean cheesy and outdated).
Lauren Moore, founder and creator of Book Huddle, an online book community, said content created in CapCut consistently outperforms content created using other programs. The tools offered by the platform automatically make almost any piece of content more engaging, she explained.
“Most video editing tools require you to have all the assets and a vision in mind; you really start with a blank page,” she said. “With CapCut, you’re about three steps ahead of that blank page. You don’t need to be an experienced video editor to be able to create truly effective viral content.
This viral content works particularly well outside of the ByteDance ecosystem. The editing style pioneered by MrBeast, called “retention editing,” originated from CapCut.
“Everyone uses 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 10 to 15 creators use the exact same animated silver effect on screen, and it all came from CapCut.”
CapCut users have been scrambling since news of TikTok’s potential ban broke. Some said they were worried they wouldn’t be able to continue making videos without access to CapCut.
“CapCut allows for a unique form of artistry,” Moore said. “Social media is all about connection, and a very big part of connecting with other people is creating content that elicits an emotional response or shows an emotional side of yourself. Using the cap cutting tools you can quickly and easily create a video to show what you think or how you feel about things, and this will be much more difficult to do if we don’t have CapCut at our disposal. arrangement. elimination.”
Many creators have talked about the potential removal of these creation tools as if there was suddenly a ban on the language. They said that although older people appear to harbor hostility toward short, highly edited videos, they have become an essential mode of expression.
“It’s like you’re taking away a language from people,” Griffin-Ortiz said. “Banning CapCut would be the book burning of the digital age. I think we’re going to look back at this time and this history and see it in a very similar light to book burnings.
Creators who are immersed in the world of short-form online video said going back to previous tools would be like a step backwards.
“CapCut has transformed the way many content creators create videos online,” said Connor Clary, a Gen Z content creator and potter in Kansas City, Missouri. “Before CapCut existed, short-form video was much simpler. It was a lot of basic, one-take videos. CapCut elevated vertical video.
Len Necefer, who runs the @sonoran.avalance.center Instagram account aimed at raising awareness about the climate crisis, said CapCut is a crucial tool when it comes to creating media that feels native to young people. “CapCut allows me to create videos and messages in a style that reaches Gen Z voters,” he said. “We did voter education and voting, and that’s where we used CapCut the most. This allows us to target a younger audience in a more fun way.
Although TikTok is the primary focus of the law, the language of the legislation is written to apply to any app deemed to be a “foreign adversary-controlled application.” The law defines an app controlled by a foreign adversary as any app operated by ByteDance, TikTok, or a subsidiary of either – which would presumably include CapCut.
CapCut has so far received relatively little mention in the debate surrounding the TikTok ban. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wa.), one of the architects of the bill, mentioned it twice in her opening statements at a March hearing of the Energy and Commerce Committee of the House, claiming that CapCut is subject to the influence of the Chinese Communist Party. Party, although she provided no evidence to support her claims.
Gahan said banning TikTok is drastic, but removing CapCut could have just as big an impact on the online landscape.
If a ban on CapCut were to pass alongside TikTok, “there is a mode of self-expression that is going to disappear from the internet,” he said.
washingtonpost
