TikTok creators, who rely on the platform to promote their brands and businesses, faced uncertainty on Sunday about their financial future as the app’s status in the United States hangs in the balance. This concern arose shortly after TikTok briefly suspended services due to a federal ban, which President-elect Donald Trump suggested he might halt with an executive order on his first day in office.
Although TikTok indicated that it was starting to restore functionality, some users had trouble accessing their profiles, while the app was still unavailable for download on both Apple and Google platforms. Many creators expressed their anxiety about adapting to this sudden change, highlighting the unique communities they formed on TikTok.
**Community Connections Frayed**
Esthetician and social media influencer, Lee Zavorskas, typically starts her mornings scrolling through TikTok with a cup of coffee, but on this particular day, she found herself jotting down alternative plans, such as playing with her pets and exploring ways to enhance her presence on other platforms like YouTube. Zavorskas, who values the community she found on TikTok, lamented the potential loss of this space, especially as she had cultivated an audience of people over 40, which she found challenging to reach on other social media sites.
“It’s like going to your favorite restaurant and finding out they took your favorite dish off the menu,” she expressed, reflecting on the emotional toll this uncertainty brought her.
**Small Business Distress**
Tiffany Cianci, a small business owner and content creator from Maryland, shared her frustrations by temporarily stepping back from Twitter and Instagram and halting her advertising on Meta and Google. For her, the stakes are high: “It’s TikTok or nothing for me.” She feels that lawmakers are unfairly targeting TikTok, which thrives alongside other profitable platforms, and criticized the political maneuvering surrounding an app crucial to the survival of many small businesses.
“Small business owners I’ve spoken with recently have expressed their fears on my livestreams, worried they may have to lay off staff,” Cianci said. The emotional weight of these conversations remains heavy for her, as she recognizes the responsibility many entrepreneurs feel for their employees’ livelihoods.
**Shifting Focus to New Platforms**
Tiffany Watson, a 20-year-old beauty creator who has been creating content since the Musical.ly era, was just beginning to identify her niche when TikTok became inaccessible. “The community on TikTok is unique, so not having that space feels strange,” she commented.
With some free time now available, Watson is redirecting her efforts towards strengthening her profiles on Instagram and YouTube, hoping to balance content creation with her studies as a psychology major and criminal justice minor at Wingate University in North Carolina. While she aspires to return to TikTok if the ban is lifted, she admits that this recent turmoil has made her more mindful and cautious, likely increasing her focus on YouTube instead.
