The TikTok Ban: The Latest & What to Do
It ain't over until it's over but you need to diversify your social media game ASAP.
Last week, a federal appeals court upheld the TikTok ban signed into law by President Biden earlier in the year. The basis of passing the law in the Spring was that TikTok poses a national security risk because TikTok is owned by a Chinese company, ByteDance, and American user data is at risk.
The law was challenged on the basis of impeding the First Amendment of the Constitution which guarantees free speech in the United States, but the court ruled that banning TikTok does not impede the first amendment. TikTok has until January 19, 2025 before the ban goes into effect, and if “significant progress” is made towards a sale, the President has the authority to grant the company an extension to continue operating in the U.S. for an additional three months (effectively until April 19, 2025).
Donald Trump, the President-elect, had threatened to ban TikTok during his first term, but has since changed course and vowed to save the app. Who knows if he will be able to drum up enough support within the House and Senate to save it.
Per this reporting, 170 million Americans, approximately 51% of the population, are TikTok users. Many creators and small businesses make their living off of TikTok - whether that is by selling on TikTok Shop, affiliate links, or via the platforms and communities they have created over the years. Many creators have spoken out about how the ban will impact them and their businesses. Some of the videos I’ve seen have been from Nuha, Talia, John from Mureta & Co., MN JSales, Monica, and Julez. I encourage you to watch these videos to hear their perspectives. I also created a video on the topic.
While many creators have been diversifying their online presence to ensure they can survive a TikTok ban since President Biden signed the ban into law earlier this year, the impact on small businesses, whether they are creators or mom & pop shops selling on TikTok is sure to be dire. Personally, this strikes me as yet another disconnect between federal level elected officials out of touch with the average American who is struggling with paying for basic needs like groceries, utilities, gas, etc. While there are creators/influencers who have giant monetized platforms and are able to make significant money off of what they’ve built, the reality is that the vast majority of people affected will be Americans who use TikTok to supplement their incomes in order to make ends meet.
Additionally, more than half of all Americans get their news from social media (TikTok is #4 of social platforms for news), and a large share of younger users (18-29) get their news from TikTok (39%). This year, TikTok has been at the center of breaking through Israeli propaganda during the genocide in Gaza that began in October 2023, making the social media company a target for the Israel lobby in the U.S. ahead of the ban becoming law this past Spring.
On the basis of income alone, I believe once TikTok is gone, we will see Americans rebelling in ways we have not seen within our lifetimes. Too many people will be financially impacted to not take action in some way.
As someone who coaches leaders about their presence on social media and consults for organizations on digital strategy, seeing TikTok cease operations in the U.S. is painful on a number of different fronts.
Creating a platform on social media is a long game - it takes years of consistent posting and/or paid advertising to build a community and following. TikTok made the time required to build a platform much shorter because of its unparalleled content discovery. TikTok allows people who have something of value to say to build platforms and communities in a relatively short period of time – much faster than the other social media platforms available to us in the U.S.
As an activist, the content discovery TikTok offers has been a lifeline over the past year in connecting with other activists and sharing information often censored or suppressed by corporate media to the general public via the app.
Preparing for the Ban as a Thought Leader
Here is what I recommend that you keep in mind and do ahead of January 19th:
Continue posting on TikTok until it ceases operations and repurpose those videos on other platforms. The vast majority of TikTok users will continue using TikTok until the day it dies in the U.S., and we don’t know what will happen after the ban goes into effect - people may literally revolt over losing access to TikTok, causing elected leaders to review what they have done and potentially reinstate it. You have nothing to lose by continuing to post content on TikTok - your account and platform on TikTok are still of value to you and you can continue to get your message out, solicit potential clients and buyers, and build your community. The only caveat here is focusing on repurposing your TikTok content on other platforms - namely YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels.
Build out a presence on YouTube. If TikTok is in fact banned, I predict that YouTube Shorts will become the new TikTok (absent a revolt). YouTube extended Shorts time limit from 60 seconds to 3 minutes in October, extending the range of short form videos that the platform can offer. I’ve found that a creator can amass YouTube subscribers very quickly by consistently posting to YouTube Shorts. YouTube is already predicted to resurface as a dominant platform for creators and thought leaders in 2025, and I recommend starting to create for this platform if you do not already.
Beyond YouTube, diversify your social media presence. That includes Instagram, LinkedIn, BlueSky, Threads, and Substack. In addition to YouTube, I believe these will be the platforms that creators and thought leaders thrive on in 2025. I’m a big evangelist for repurposing content and ideas across different platforms:
For instance, once this newsletter is published, I am going to record a long-form video of this content for my newly launched Rahman Social YouTube Channel, use some of those clips on my Rahman Social TikTok and Instagram accounts.
Conversely, I often turn things I talk about on X/Twitter or TikTok into longer form written pieces for my Substack newsletters or Rahman Consulting blog.
Build an email list. Whether that’s on Substack or via another email service, create a way for you to mail your subscribers directly and direct your community to sign up for the list to keep in touch with you.
Direct your community to connect with you on other platforms. You will need to tell your TikTok community to connect with you on other platforms on a regular basis. People are inundated with so much content online, especially now during the holidays, that this will need to be a weekly message from you. Tell them exactly where to go to follow you and/or subscribe to your list.
If you need help with your next steps, feel free to schedule a consultation with me.
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Thought leadership in action: For examples of the application of what I share applied to real life content, follow me on your favorite social media platforms: TikTok, Twitter/X, Threads, BlueSky, YouTube, Instagram, Medium, and Substack