'Disappointment and devastation': US TikTok creators brace for uncertain future as ban looms

Company warns that ban could cost small businesses and creators $1.3 billion within a month

Bradley Alagna – better known as Bradley on a Budget to his nearly 700,000 TikTok followers – saved more than $89,000 in 2024. Sharing the results of his "2024 Savings Wrapped", the US content creator is known for detailing his journey of frugal living after tackling massive student loan debt.

While he has been creating content for the past five years, Alagna only began monetising about 10 months ago, earning around $25,000 in that time. However, now he – along with more than 170 million users of the platform in the US – are anxiously awaiting a Supreme Court decision that could determine TikTok's future in the country.

"It has been such a crazy couple of weeks of everyone going everywhere and no one knowing what's the next best step. It's been really overwhelming to try to take everyone along with me, so it's been tough," Alagna tells The National.

Social media star speaks of his concerns about impending US TikTok ban

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The Supreme Court is expected to rule on January 19. Nevertheless, US president-elect Donald Trump has hinted he could issue an executive order after taking office to delay the legislation's enforcement. In a court filing on Monday, TikTok said that if the app is banned in the US, small businesses and social media creators could lose a combined $1.3 billion of revenue within a month.

Alagna is among those who would be affected. "If I was to kind of keep up with the numbers I was making in October, November and December, I mean, I could easily be losing probably like $30,000 to $40,000 this year, just alone from TikTok getting banned."

If enforced, the ban will prevent users in the US from downloading TikTok from the Google or Apple app stores, gradually making its services inaccessible.

Taylor Byrne, who goes by QueenTayShops, is a full-time creator from Atlanta, Georgia who has more than 200,000 followers on TikTok. She says 90 per cent of her income has come from the platform in the past two years, and hasn’t held back on expressing her frustration with the situation.

"I feel disappointed, devastated, angry, shocked," she says. "I feel like I've been through all the stages of grief at this point, not only for myself, but I'm somebody who has so many creative friends and has made a majority of my friends in the creative space."

Like other influencers who will be affected, she has already moved to another platform. In this case, RedNote, a Shanghai-based app that has been active since 2013. Despite its predominantly Chinese interface, a growing number of American users are joining the platform, referring to themselves as "refugees" of the TikTok ban.

Byrne says she has had positive early experiences with the app, emphasising the platform's openness to collaboration and recognition of creators' influence. "Within my first two days on the platform, I received a request for agency support and paid collaborations," she said.

While Byrne has turned to another foreign app, Alagna has doubts about starting over. "I've been posting almost every day for five years, and I don't necessarily know if I have it in me to do it all again," he admitted.

Instead, he is leaning towards focusing his content on platforms with an established audience. "We're all scrambling right now," he says. "I've had my Instagram for a really long time, and I've had some of my TikTok supporters follow me [there] so I think I'm just going to move to Instagram. I've started [the Frugal Freak] podcast on YouTube and have had some of my supporters go there."

I've been posting almost every day for five years, and I don't necessarily know if I have it in me to do it all again

Bradley Alagna,
TikTok content creator

While RedNote has shot to the top of the free app download charts in the US, Byrne thinks it could potentially face similar challenges to TikTok. "I think that this TikTok ban is the start of many bans and many attempts to take things down that aren't American," she says.

But her concerns run deeper, fearing this could mark the beginning of a broader crackdown. "That's why I think a lot of us are scared. Not just because we think it's a one-off thing, we think this is the start of our methods of speech being taken away."

As concerns about the ban increase, content creators are weighing up their options for the future, with some even considering leaving the country.

"It's actually something I've considered as well as many other creator friends," Byrne says. "We've been joking back and forth about flying to the Bahamas to batch our content and post for the month. So it is a joke in that regard, but I think some of us are half-joking as I've seriously considered it, if this continues to happen with TikTok and other apps moving forward."