This weekend, creators and influencers were in for an intense case of whiplash.
Just an hour before midnight on Saturday, after several legal challenges and rumours of a potential buyout, the long-discussed TikTok ban was finally implemented in the United States, with users who attempted to access the app met with a notification banner stating that the app is no longer available in the US.
However, from the start, it offered a glimmer of hope by adding the statement “we are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office,” nodding to Trump’s statement to NBC News that he plans to give TikTok a 90-day extension to be sold. On his Truth Social platform on Sunday morning, Trump posted “Save TikTok,” and within hours, the platform announced it was turning service back on for US users.
But Trump only has so much power to pause a law that was passed by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court. For now, the millions of creators and influencers who depend on TikTok for their livelihoods — many of whom didn’t believe the ban was coming until it actually arrived — find themselves stuck in a sort of purgatory.
Since TikTok took off in the US at the height of the pandemic in 2020, many creators have become dependent on it as their primary source of income. The platform offers many different forms of monetisation, such as the TikTok Creativity Program, which rewards creators for videos with higher engagement or its livestream shopping feature TikTok Shop, which started to gain traction last year. For brands, its much-touted algorithm made it easier to quickly reach new audiences via viral content, minting hit products and driving interest in their products.
Even if the ban is eventually revoked, the events of this weekend show how fragile the social media ecosystem is for both the creators and brands that rely on these platforms to connect with followers and market to consumers. Even with TikTok momentarily available again, many are reverting to other platforms with mass usage in the US such as Instagram and YouTube, others are considering alternatives like Chinese app RedNote, or up-and-coming US platforms like Substack.
“Creators are turning into small businesses, and they’re having to learn a lot of the lessons that businesses do about diversifying your distribution channels and really owning your customer relationship,” said Scott Sutton, founder of influencer marketing firm Later. “The consequence of this, is maybe there will be a levelling up in creators’ business acumen.”
For now, they are mostly still reeling from the weekend’s emotional up-and-downs of having the platform taken away and brought back, but with its future still in limbo.
“I had to stop filming a few times because I started to get teary eyed,” creator Caroline Vazzana said of filming her “goodbye” video, which she posted on Friday. “Before TikTok, I’d never even edited a video. I just feel sad.”
How Creators Are Responding
For the creators and influencers that use TikTok as their primary — if not only — platform, the ban is serving as something of a wakeup call. More than that, it’s underscored how important it is for influencers to diversify their revenue streams and build up a sizable presence across platforms.
“As a creator, you always have to be on your feet ready to move on to the next thing and adapt to whatever’s next,” said Audrey Peters, who initially broke into the space on TikTok. She said she long doubted that the ban would actually go into effect, but still spent the last year focused on growing her Instagram “to be as safe as humanly possible” because “this is how I pay my rent.”
Many others didn’t start instructing followers to find them elsewhere until this week, either oblivious to the looming shutdown, or believing it wouldn’t happen. While impacted influencers can’t make up for lost time, they can make it as easy as possible for others to find them: Vazzana recommends keeping your username consistent across platforms so followers know exactly who to look for.
Some platforms are offering incentives: Substack has launched a competition for a $25,000 “TikTok Liberation Prize,” given to a creator that makes the most inspiring video inviting their followers to subscribe to them on Substack. Emily Blair Marcus, the founder of influencer-focused PR firm Emily Blair Media, said that she also recommends creators experiment with Snapchat, which has rolled out more influencer monetisation features, and podcasts, which are increasingly appearing in video format as well.
Even if followers find them on Instagram or YouTube, creators may struggle to replicate the success they found on TikTok. Porting TikTok-style contact over to Reels is straightforward enough, but it doesn’t have the same reach or sense of community, creators say, and its 90-second time limit is more restrictive than TikTok’s 10 minutes. YouTube offers the ability to upload longer videos, but its TikTok competitor option, YouTube Shorts, is quite a ways off from mass adaptation in the US.
Chinese-owned Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, has rapidly grown in popularity over the past week; it’s now the top free app in Apple’s app store. However, it has its own hurdles: The app is predominantly conducted in Mandarin Chinese, and would likely come under the same scrutiny TikTok did.
When it comes to brand partnerships, there is some anticipation of a “figuring-it-out” period as brands determine where to put the marketing dollars they would have poured into TikTok-centric campaigns. That, in turn, could make for a more unstable period for earnings. And without their audience on TikTok, rates for sponsored campaigns will have to be adjusted accordingly.
“My ability to make money is definitely going to be affected, because there’s truly so much unknown with how these brands are going to reallocate their budget,” said Brigette Pheloung, a creator who goes by the moniker Acquired Style online.
Even for those who have built up a substantial following elsewhere, there’s an overwhelming feeling of sadness among the creator community, not just that they’re losing a platform that contributed to their livelihoods, but also brought them joy.
“It’s a huge bummer, especially when you put years and years of energy into building your own little community of people,” said Hannah Melcoche, a creator who got her start on YouTube but has amassed over a million followers on TikTok. “If half the people really love you but forgot to follow you on Instagram, that sucks.”
Brands’ Outlook
While the stakes of a TikTok ban feel high for creators, most brands have less to worry about. UK-based womenswear brand Odd Muse, among others, intends on simply carrying on their creator relationships elsewhere.
“We’re having quite a chilled approach to it,” said Odd Muse’s founder Aimee Smale. “Anyone we work with, it’s not going to hinder any deals we have going through at the moment.”
While much of the brand’s notoriety came after products like its pearl-lined “Ultimate Muse” dress went viral on TikTok, Smale said the majority of the brand’s sales come from affiliate links shared on creators’ Instagram stories, where it has also focussed on growing its following. While founder of accessories label Heaven Mayhem, Pia Mance, said the loss of easily reaching new audiences via TikTok “is going to sting,” her brand also almost exclusively sees affiliate sales driven by Instagram stories and Substack, rather than TikTok.
Brands should be willing to shift to working with an influencer on new platforms, rather than abandoning partners altogether. Doing so will help a brand position themselves as a trusted partner.
“It is our responsibility to make sure that [creators] land on their feet,” said Alanah Dixon, VP of integrated marketing for hair-care brand Hairstory. “The platform doesn’t make the content creator, the content creator makes the platform.”
Many brands also see a TikTok ban as reason to lean into content formats that are native to different platforms, like moodboards on Pinterest, product reviews on Reddit or Substack and YouTube for longer-form storytelling. The opportunity to work with creators in diverse formats, rather than simply reposting the same content across platforms, will also “challenge our ways of thinking and creating,” said Dixon.
Overall, brands do not seem overly concerned about the future of their relationships with creators on alternative platforms in the event of a ban, despite a potential learning curve.
“What we saw this week with RedNote was amazing,” said Carolina Perez Aleman, US brand director of Spanish jewellery brand Pdpaola. “The fact that everyone mobilised in two, three days, I was like, ‘Okay, there’s a future ahead. Regardless of what happens with TikTok, people will find solutions.’”
