As a TikTok shutdown looms, 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 U.S. this month unless its owner, ByteDance, is sold to a company outside of China.
President-elect Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to block the law from going into effect — and NPR's Bobby Allyn has reported that "for all the TikTokers out there who use the app every day, I think it's fair to say it's unlikely it will be disappearing anytime soon."
But creators on the app are saying their goodbyes and planning for the app as they know it to go away in a matter of weeks.
For some creators, the end of TikTok would mean losing 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 was, I would say, equaling my corporate salary for about three months before I took the leap to quit," Lakey said.
TikTok has allowed her to pay off some of her student debt. Unlike her corporate job, becoming a full-time TikTok creator has also provided her autonomy over how she spends each hour of her day.
But recently she's seen comments that a TikTok ban might force influencers like her to "get a real job."
In a TikTok video, she retorted, "Influencers aren't out of touch for crying about the TikTok ban. You're out of touch for not realizing this is a real industry."
Women have the most to lose: Eighty-four percent of influencers are women, according to a 2024 report from Influencer Marketing Hub, which follows the social media industry.
"Some would argue that with TikTok shutting down, they could wipe out about $1.3 billion in U.S. small business and creator revenue within 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 globally," Turner Lee added.
President Biden signed the bill that would potentially ban TikTok, citing threats to national security.
The app gathers a lot of personal information from users, and lawmakers say they are concerned about the Chinese government spying on American users, or manipulating 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't control mass communication anymore, which has also been obvious since the war in Gaza started," Aleksic said in a TikTok video.
Aleksic echoes a theme a lot of TikTok users share about the ban.
"The gatekeepers hate this, but they know they can't stop us from using all of social media," he said. "Instead, they can just try to limit us to the platforms they have the most control over."
Among TikTok users, there's a feeling of loss.
"I'm not as worried as I am disappointed," said Anna Vatuone, who coaches people on developing their personal brands online.
Vatuone says she finds most of her clients through TikTok. Ahead of a potential ban on the app, she's telling her hundred and eighty thousand followers to find her on Instagram and Substack.
"Rule one of personal branding is don't put all your eggs in one basket," Vatuone said. "Diversify and make sure that you're in a lot of different places, because the truth is we don't own our profiles anywhere."
Ralph Tyndall posts videos about cardmaking to his one-and-a-half million followers. He's been a full-time content creator for almost two years, and says it allowed him to leave his tech job that burned him out.
"I've kind of just been ignoring it, knowing that I don't really have any control," he said of a potential TikTok ban.
Tyndall used to make around $160 thousand annually at his tech job, however he now makes more as a content creator. He says he'll be alright without the additional income from TikTok — but it's the loss of community he's more worried about. He's been on TikTok longer than any other social media platform, and doesn't want to lose the following he's built up.
"While it's great to chase the metrics and numbers and views, the thing that keeps me coming back is the community," Tyndall said.
Rishika Vinnakota is a TikTok influencer who posts about her life as a college student to her twenty thousand followers. She says she's "disappointed just because I 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 has three on-campus jobs, but makes the most of her income from TikTok partnerships and brand deals.
"It's a little sad to go through and relive all my videos and download them and, you know, plan to post them on another platform," she added.
Vinnakota uses a separate app to download her videos without the TikTok watermark — since videos posted on TikTok can't be downloaded without the app's logo.
While 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 nearly as many followers on other social media platforms.
"I mean, all of this could have been dealt with in a much better way," she said of the lawmakers who orchestrated the potential ban.
"I'm still going to take content, film, post, edit. I'm going to do everything I do," Vinnakota said. "It just might 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.
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