Big changes could be coming for TikTok influencers in the next few days.
U.S.-based creators, many of whom make their living on the popular social media app, have been preparing for the possibility of a ban as they wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on TikTok’s challenge to a bill signed into law by President Joe Biden earlier this year, targeting the company while citing national security concerns.
Influencers with major followings on TikTok spoke to HuffPost about how they feel about the possibility of a ban as other platforms vie to replace it, while also describing the profound role TikTok has had on their lives so far.
Alexis Androulakis, who operates the @thelipsticklesbians account with her wife, Christina Basias Androulakis, said TikTok saved them from bankruptcy.
“It’s a really special platform,” Androulakis said. “Going from looking and talking to bankruptcy lawyers, and then within six months, being able to monetize through TikTok itself and sustain a livelihood. There was no other platform that offered that to us in our time of our deepest economic need as American citizens.”
But how did we reach a point where a platform with a user base of 170 million Americans could be banned within days?
Why was the option of a ban put on the table?
The bill signed by Biden in April would prevent app stores from carrying TikTok or rolling out updates to the platform unless ByteDance, its Chinese parent company, sells the app’s U.S. assets to an entity not controlled by the laws of a foreign adversary country by Sunday.
The law is currently subject to a Supreme Court review. If the high court upholds it, TikTok has reportedly decided the platform will go dark in the U.S. on Sunday, barring any surprise developments. Users who access the app from Jan. 19 onward would get a pop-up message that would take them to a separate website explaining the ban, according to Reuters. Users would also be given the option to download their data, the news agency added.
Meanwhile, Biden is now signaling he won’t enforce a potential ban, leaving the app’s fate to President-elect Donald Trump. Trump, who previously tried to ban TikTok in 2020 but has since pivoted his stance on the platform, is reportedly already looking into ways to undo the law, according to The Washington Post.
2020 was a ‘wake-up call.’
Benjamin de Almeida, who is known as @benoftheweek on social media, said the previous efforts to ban TikTok under the Trump administration served as a “wake-up call” for him.
The possibility pushed de Almeida — who lived in Canada at the time but has since moved to the U.S. — and some of his fellow creators to start prioritizing other platforms.
“We’ve kind of known that TikTok isn’t going to be there forever, or at least it’s not a guaranteed thing to exist,” de Almeida told HuffPost.
Achieng Agutu, the creator behind the @noordinarynoire TikTok handle, said the fact that a ban did not materialize in 2020, though, made her downplay the possibility of the platform going away this time around.
But Agutu said she still has hope that the U.S. government will understand the significant impact a ban could have both on the American economy and the community in the country.
“TikTok has completely changed my life for the better. I’m a better woman because of the community and platform I’ve created there,” she said. “I hope that the government sees and knows that I am one of many people in this space who feel that sentiment deeply, and that my hope is that we can still continue to have a platform where we feel seen and excited and heard.”
What is so special about TikTok?
Androulakis described what sets TikTok apart from other existing platforms.
“There’s never been a more organic engine for reach and accessibility to virality, again, organic reach of community, ever before TikTok existed,” she said. “It’s why there’s so many people out there with a ‘TikTok made me famous’ story.”
The two creators behind @thelipsticklesbians explained that posts they make on TikTok sometimes get four times the views that the same content would get on other apps they use, including Instagram and YouTube.
“I think it’s going to be difficult to achieve the same consistent levels of virality, because it’s hard to predict these other platforms,” Basias Androulakis said.
Agutu, who was born and raised in Kenya but now lives in New York, said TikTok has enabled her to really reach audiences that deeply resonate with her content.
“It has helped me find people who look like me and talk like me and have the same life experiences like me way more easily,” she said.
Yet, de Almeida pointed out that TikTok can also be a harder platform to monetize content on compared with other social media apps. He said YouTube is the “main wheelhouse” for him and part of the reason a potential ban would have a minimal effect on his business.
“But I know that’s, like, not the case for so many creators,” he added.
Still, TikTok offers brands and advertisers massive reach, making it an attractive place for them to spend money, Agutu said.
Can existing platforms replace TikTok?
As the clock is ticking on TikTok, the platform has been reportedly urging users to migrate to another app owned by ByteDance, Lemon8. Others have also been downloading another Chinese app called RedNote, which purports to offer a similar user experience to TikTok and Instagram.
However, de Almeida said he’s “not too interested” in joining those, predicting that more established apps like YouTube and Instagram will be where audiences flock to if TikTok goes away.
Still, Androulakis noted that many of their followers have “expressed distaste” for Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, and YouTube within their comment section.
“We will go where our community will go and where community can find us. However, that said, and really importantly, there is no one way to prepare for this,” she added.
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Agutu conceded that while there will be efforts to recreate the TikTok experience elsewhere, she believes the platform has offered something unique to creators and users alike.
“I have personally not made the migration to other platforms,” she said. “I think TikTok cannot be replicated, and that’s the truth.”