With the future of TikTok in the hands of lawmakers — Montana is set to become the first state to ban the app entirely — the hundreds of thousands of creators who use the platform daily are, by now, used to conversations about diversifying their brand just in case a nationwide ban becomes a reality.
Following TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s testimony before the House Energy & Commerce Committee at the end of March, The Hollywood Reporter spoke to a handful of creators who have grown their businesses on the platform, making most of their living either directly through the app or because of the audience they have built there. Some were in Washington, D.C., for Chew’s testimony, advocating for the app’s unique place in the social media landscape and making the case that they use it in ways that lawmakers don’t understand.
Says Tiffany Yu, who built her brand on TikTok as a disability advocate and social impact entrepreneur, “There’s a little bit of a disconnect between our experience as creators on the app, versus the concerns around data and national security.”
For months, Congress has sounded alarms about the app, which is owned by the Chinese tech company ByteDance, including concerns about U.S. user data being shared with the Chinese government, as well as its capacity for spreading misinformation. Those concerns have also seemed to bring together lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Congress is also considering legislation, which is backed by the White House, that would allow the Commerce Department to restrict foreign threats on tech platforms. But some argue the bill isn’t specific enough. TikTok is already banned on federal government devices after President Joe Biden signed legislation in December and, more recently, his administration has also threatened an app ban if ByteDance doesn’t sell its stake.
Although the creators who spoke with THR agreed with Congress that there are data privacy concerns, their apprehension isn’t solely regarding TikTok — it’s about every app available for download. Yu used Uber as an example, saying people tell others their addresses and where they are going on that app.
David Ma — a commercial director and filmmaker, with a following of 1.3 million on TikTok — adds that it seems like “something that we need to address kind of across the board with all apps. I’m all for having privacy and, you know, letting creators on the app maintain the level of privacy that they would want to have.” He finds the whole TikTok ban discussion frustrating because “creators have worked so hard and dedicated so much of our livelihood and our time to growing on this app and to creating streams of income that for them to be banning it for the wrong reasons, to me, seems a bit short-sighted.”
V Spehar, aka underthedesknews, who has amassed a TikTok following of nearly 3 million, saying they noticed “people losing a lot of their faith and a lot of their trust in institutional places like politics, like the news” and saw an opportunity to provide information through the app, was in the room during Chew’s testimony. Spehar tells THR that they found the data privacy concerns that Congress brought up interesting but that they wish lawmakers would be more transparent about exactly what concerns they have. “I want to know more about how we write legislation that protects the privacy and the data of American citizens without exposing us to government overreach when it comes to having to give up all of our privacy to protect our privacy.”
As Congress proceeds with considering legislation, Yu just wants to make sure those decisions “are made thoughtfully and fairly.” She has been doing advocacy work for decades and knows how important accessibility is because “in order to make the world more accessible, we need to make our experience more accessible to the world.” If a ban were to happen, she asks what’s the “integration plan” for everyone whose livelihoods are on the app so that the “blow of that transition [is] a little bit easier?”
David Ma; V Spehar; Jorge Alvarez; Tiffany Yu
Courtesy of TikTok (4)
Spehar and Jorge Alvarez say it was important to be in the room with Chew and Congress to ensure their community was represented there. Spehar was even very particular about what seat they chose in the room. They sat right behind Chew so that Congress “can’t avoid” the “entire community of people like me that you like and that you care about and that you know about that this is gonna affect. This isn’t just shutting down Chinese propaganda and all this terrible stuff. This is closing down the voices, the businesses and the community of the people that you care about, that you’ve invited into your office, that helped you get elected.”
The platform’s battle comes as the company disclosed in March that it has more than 150 million monthly active users in the U.S. Ryan Detert, CEO of influencer marketing company Influential, says TikTok changed the game for the social media space because of its algorithm: “Whether you have 1,000 followers or 100,000 followers, your content could be seen by millions.”
Alvarez explains that TikTok gave him a level of amplification and visibility that just wasn’t available on other platforms. Over time, he also noticed that other platforms started to make “adjustments in terms of how they listen to creators, engage with creators” to compete with TikTok’s algorithm. After starting his brand as a creator and advocate working to destigmatize mental health, because he “didn’t see anyone who looked like me creating mental health content,” he found that being vulnerable was “really powerful because people were able to resonate with those experiences.”
Spehar even defines TikTok as a “discovery platform” because “you can just start because you have an idea and you don’t have to, like, pitch that idea through levels and levels of editors before you get your message out.” Specifically, on TikTok compared to other apps, they “noticed that positivity is rewarded on the platform.” Ma adds that the platform has helped “kind of given me a seat at the table,” especially in an industry like filmmaking that’s hard to break into.
Although some it would be easy to jump to another app if TikTok is banned, the creators THR spoke with claim that’s not the case because the platform is unlike others they have used. Specifically, Yu says the search feature played a huge part in connecting her with others and helping build her community. “You’re not just another creator, but again, you’re creating that relationship, not just a static post or a tweet going through.”
TikTok has been revolutionary with its powerful algorithm, but it wasn’t the first platform whose content consisted of user-created shortform videos. Vine initially started the concept with its under-15-second videos, but TikTok has been able to create a new wave of popularity surrounding the format.
Revenue was also a factor that made TikTok stand out among its competitors with its in-app monetization tool. While not all the creators THR spoke with participated in the creator fund, they all said they started their brands because they were passionate about their work and that TikTok offered opportunities to earn revenue, something that Spehar says was easier and quicker to achieve on TikTok than other platforms like Instagram and YouTube.
Spehar thinks the platform could be doing better with “brand partners, brand partnerships with ads” and “new monetization tools that don’t require paywalls,” but overall, they “love that so many people can be included in [the] creator fund.” (Other creators have previously been outspoken about the creator fund and how it doesn’t have an ad revenue-sharing program like YouTube.)
Ma, who says the revenue tool has helped “spotlight” his work, has met other creators who told him that their whole businesses are on TikTok, with the majority of their sales and funds coming from the app. “There’s just a lot of people who their livelihoods are built and made on this platform. And these people are small businesses who are doing a lot for the economy,” Ma notes.
While the app may have started off as a side hustle for some, for many it has turned into a career. Yu says every year she earns more, making around $55,000 in 2021 and almost double that last year. Now, between the creator fund, brand partnerships, etc., she says it’s the majority of her income.
Not only would a ban impact individual revenue streams, but Detert says the marketing creator economy as a whole “would 100 percent take a step back.” At this point, he says, anywhere between 20 and 50 percent of the marketing budget for brands he works with goes toward TikTok and partnerships with its creators. TikTok could even surpass YouTube in U.S. ad revenue by 2024, per an Insider Intelligence forecast based on an estimate that the platform is expected to net $11.01 billion in ad revenue, versus YouTube’s $10.71 billion.
While there are a lot of unknowns for the future of TikTok, all the creators THR spoke with say that they’re focusing on the present. Although most of them note they are keeping their focus on TikTok, given the uncertainty, experts in the past have recommended that creators diversify their followings. Detert also notes that there are a lot of first-time creators on TikTok, meaning a ban would greatly impact them.
But Spehar says they aren’t going anywhere because “this is my house. This is where me and my friends live. This is where all the stuff is that I like. I’m going to stay in this house until they burn it down, and I don’t think that they are going to burn it down.”
Although Ma hopes for the best, he adds that he doesn’t plan to try and migrate his followers to other platforms because “the algorithm was so specific to TikTok” and the communities on the app existed because of “the nuances of what makes that platform unique.”
Alvarez says they have to “lean on one another and continue to show up as ourselves on the platform and also voice how this has played a role in your life.” While his priority is focusing on the now and TikTok, he did explain the importance of slowly working on his presence and strategy for other platforms.
No matter what happens, Yu says that the community that creators have built isn’t going anywhere. “We will find our way … find our platform … and fight for justice in a different way and on a different platform.”
She adds, “What unites all of us is that all of our lives have been changed.”
