Potential ban on TikTok

As TikTok’s shutdown approaches, many creators are preparing for life without the popular social media app that serves as news, entertainment and, for some, income.

TikTok will be banned in the United States this month unless its owner, ByteDance, is sold to a company outside China.

President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to block the law from taking effect — and NPR’s Bobby Allyn asked reported that “for all the TikTokers who use the app every day, I think it’s fair to say that it’s unlikely to disappear anytime soon.”

But the app’s creators are saying goodbye and predicting that the app as they know it will disappear in a few weeks.

For some creators, the end of TikTok would mean the loss of their main source of income.

Cora Lakey quit her six-figure job in talent acquisition and project management in October — because she was able to make a living on TikTok.

“I would say I had matched my corporate salary for about three months before I took the plunge and quit,” Lakey said.

TikTok allowed him to pay off some of his student debt. Unlike her corporate job, becoming a full-time TikTok creator has also given her autonomy over how she spends each hour of her day.

But recently, she saw comments that a TikTok ban could force influencers like her to “get a real job.”

In a TikTok videoshe retorted: “Influencers aren’t out of touch when they’re crying about TikTok being banned. You’re out of touch because they don’t realize it’s a real industry.”

Women have the most to lose: according to a 2024 report, 84% of influencers are women. Influencer Marketing Centerwho follows the social media industry.

“Some would say that with TikTok shutting down, they could wipe out approximately $1.3 billion income of America’s small businesses and creators in just one month,” said Nicol Turner Lee, senior fellow in governance studies and director of the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution.

“The creator economy is valued at 250 billion dollars worldwide“added Turner Lee.

President Biden signed the invoice this could potentially ban TikTok, citing threats to national security.

The app collects a lot of personal information from users, and lawmakers say they are concerned that the Chinese government is spying on American users, or manipulate the platform to advance its own interests.

But Adam Aleksic, who goes by @etymologynerd on TikTok, doesn’t believe these claims.

“It’s not about China. It’s about the fact that they can no longer control mass communications, which is also evident since the start of the war in Gaza,” Aleksic said on TikTok. video.

Aleksic echoes a theme shared by many TikTok users about the ban.

“The guards hate it, but they know they can’t stop us from using all social media,” he said. “Instead, they may just try to limit us to the platforms they have the most control over.”

Among TikTok users, there is a sense of loss.

“I’m not as worried as disappointed,” said Anna Vatuonewhich supports people in developing their personal brand online.

Vatuone says she finds most of her customers through TikTok. Before a possible ban on the app, she told her one hundred and eighty thousand followers to find her on Instagram and Substack.

“The first rule of personal branding is don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” Vatuone said. “Diversify yourself and make sure you’re in a lot of different places because the truth is we don’t own our profiles anywhere.”

Ralph Tyndall posts videos on card making to her one and a half million subscribers. He’s been a full-time content creator for almost two years and says it allowed him to leave his tech job that was draining him.

“I kind of ignored it, knowing that I don’t really have control,” he said of a possible TikTok ban.

Tyndall used to make around $160,000 a year in his tech job, but he now earns more as a content creator. He says he’ll do fine without the extra revenue from TikTok – but it’s the loss of community that worries him most. He’s been on TikTok longer than any other social media platform and doesn’t want to lose the audience he’s amassed.

“While it’s great to look for metrics and numbers and perspectives, what keeps me coming back is the community,” Tyndall said.

Rishika Vinnakota is a TikTok influencer who posts about her student life to her twenty thousand followers. She says she’s “disappointed just because I’ve built a community,” adding that “it’s really hard to get people to follow you from one platform to another, especially if you have a smaller platform.”

Vinnakota works three jobs on campus, but makes the most of his income through TikTok partnerships and brand deals.

“It’s a little sad going through and reliving all my videos and downloading them and, you know, planning to release them on another platform,” she added.

Vinnakota uses a separate app to upload his videos without the TikTok watermark, as videos posted on TikTok cannot be downloaded without the app logo.

Even if she can upload her TikTok videos to another platform, it won’t be as lucrative. Having a large following on TikTok makes brands want to work with her – and she doesn’t have as many followers on other social media platforms.

“I mean, this whole thing could have been handled in a much better way,” she said of the lawmakers who orchestrated the eventual ban.

“I’m still going to take content, film, post, edit. I’m going to do whatever I do,” Vinnakota said. “It may not be on TikTok anymore.”

This story was edited for radio by Barry Gordemer and edited for digital by Treye Green. It was produced by Claire Murashima.