It\u2019s been more than four years<\/a> since Donald Trump first moved to expel TikTok from the US \u2014 and now, just days before a second Trump presidency begins, it just might happen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n President Joe Biden signed legislation last April<\/a> that officially began the countdown that would force TikTok\u2019s parent company, ByteDance, to divest from the US business. But even afterward, <\/strong>the atmosphere on the video powerhouse was mostly nonchalant, with a handful of stray jokes about \u201cthis app disappearing\u201d slotted between the usual fare. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n In the last week, though, the vibe has shifted \u2014 my favorite creators are posting links to their other social accounts, audiences are making highlight reels<\/a> of the most viral moments on the app, and they\u2019re saying goodbye to their \u201cChinese spy\u201d<\/a> and threatening to hand over their data to the Chinese government<\/a>. A Chinese-owned app Xiaohongshu, known as RedNote, topped the App Store<\/a> this week, driven by a wave of \u201cTikTok refugees\u201d trying to recreate the experience of the platform. It\u2019s feeling a bit like a fever dream last day of school.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n For many creatives online, this wouldn\u2019t be the first time they\u2019ve had to migrate to new spaces: reach, engagement, and visibility are constantly shifting even on the largest and most stable platforms. But the possibility that a social media site of this size would disappear \u2014 or slowly break down until it\u2019s nonfunctional \u2014 is a new threat. For small creators especially, TikTok is like playing the lottery: you don\u2019t need thousands of followers for your video to get big, and this unpredictability incentivized the average person to upload content.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s still unclear what will happen to TikTok after January 19th. I asked content creators what their game plan is. (Responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAt the peak, I was making approximately 70 percent of my sales through TikTok from December 2020 to January 2022. Now, it drives at most, 10 percent of my sales,\u201d says Noelle Johansen, who sells<\/a> slogan sweatshirts, accessories, stickers, and other products. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAt my peak with TikTok, I was able to reach so many customers with ease. Instagram and Twitter have always been a shot in the dark as to whether the content will be seen, but TikTok was very consistent in showing my followers and potential new customers my videos,\u201d Johansen told The Verge<\/em> in an email. \u201cI\u2019ve also made great friends from the artist community on TikTok, and it\u2019s difficult to translate that community to other social media. Most apps function a lot differently than TikTok, and many people don\u2019t have the bandwidth to keep up with all of the new socials and building platforms there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Going forward, Johansen says they\u2019ll focus on X and Instagram for sales while working to grow an audience on Bluesky and Threads.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI think the ease of use on TikTok opened an avenue for a lot of would-be creators,\u201d Kay Poyer, a popular creator making humor and commentary content, says. \u201cRight now we\u2019re seeing a cleaving point, where many will choose to stop or be forced to adapt back to older platforms (which tend to be more difficult to build followings on and monetize).\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As for her own plans, Poyer says she\u2019ll stay where the engagement is if TikTok becomes unavailable \u2014 smaller platforms like Bluesky or Neptune aren\u2019t yet impactful enough.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019m seeing a big spike in subscribers to my Substack, The Quiet Part, as well as followers flooding to my Instagram and Twitter,\u201d Poyer told The Verge<\/em>. \u201cPersonally I have chosen to make my podcast, Meat Bus, the flagship of my content. We\u2019re launching our video episodes sometime next month on YouTube.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Bethany Brookshire, a science journalist and author, has been sharing videos about human anatomy on TikTok, Bluesky, Instagram, and YouTube. Across platforms, Brookshire has observed differences in audiences \u2014 YouTube, for example, \u201cis not a place [to] build an audience,\u201d she says, citing negative comments on her work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cSometimes I feel like the only ethical way to produce any content is to write it out in artisanal chalk on an organically sourced vegan stone\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI find people on TikTok comment and engage a lot more, and most importantly, their comments are often touching or funny,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I was doing pelvic anatomy, a lot of people with uteruses wrote in to tell me they felt seen, that they had a specific condition, and they even bonded with each other in the comments.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Brookshire told The Verge<\/em> in an email that sharing content anywhere can at times feel fraught. Between Nazi content on Substack<\/a>, right-wing ass-kissing at Meta<\/a>, and the national security concerns of TikTok, it doesn\u2019t feel like any platform is perfectly ideal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cSometimes I feel like the only ethical way to produce any content is to write it out in artisanal chalk on an organically sourced vegan stone, which I then try to show to a single person with their consent before gently tossing it into the ocean to complete its circle of life,\u201d Brookshire says. \u201cBut if I want to inform, and I want to educate, I need to be in the places people go.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Woodstock Farm Sanctuary in upstate New York uses TikTok to share information with new audiences \u2014 the group\u2019s Instagram following is mostly people who are already animal rights activists, vegans, or sanctuary supporters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cTikTok has allowed us to reach people who don\u2019t even know what animal sanctuaries are,\u201d social media coordinator\u00a0Riki Higgins told The Verge<\/em> in an email. \u201cWhile we still primarily fundraise via Meta platforms, we seem to make the biggest education and advocacy impact when we post on TikTok.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n With a small social media and marketing team of two, Woodstock Farm Sanctuary (like other small businesses and organizations) must be strategic in how it uses its efforts. YouTube content can be more labor-intensive, Higgins says, and Instagram Reels is missing key features like 2x video speed and the ability to pause videos.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cTikTok users really, really don\u2019t like Reels. They view it as the platform where jokes, trends, etc., go to die, where outdated content gets recycled, and especially younger users see it as an app only older audiences use,\u201d Higgins says. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The sanctuary says it will meet audiences wherever they migrate in the case that TikTok becomes inaccessible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Anna Rangos, who works in social media and makes tech and cultural commentary videos, is no stranger to having to pick up and leave a social media platform for somewhere else. As a retired sex worker, she saw firsthand how fragile a social media following could be.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cYou could wake up one day to find your accounts deactivated, and restoring them? Forget it. Good luck getting any kind of service from Meta,\u201d Rangos said in an email. Having an account deleted means lost income and hours of trying to rebuild a following. \u201cOver my time in the industry, I went through three or four Instagram accounts, constantly trying to recapture my following.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sex workers and sex education creators regularly deal with<\/a> their content being removed, censored, or entire accounts deleted<\/a>. Rangos says that though the community on TikTok is more welcoming, she\u2019s working to stake out her own space through a website<\/a> and a newsletter. She also plans to stay active on YouTube, Pinterest, and Bluesky. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI don\u2019t plan on using Meta products much, given [Mark] Zuckerberg\u2019s recent announcements regarding fact-checking,\u201d she wrote in an email.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nNoelle Johansen, @astraeagoods<\/a> (89K followers)<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n
Kay Poyer, @ladymisskay_<\/a> (704K followers)<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n
Bethany Brookshire, @beebrookshire<\/a> (18K followers)<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n
Woodstock Farm Sanctuary, @woodstocksanctuary<\/a> (117K followers)<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n
Anna Rangos, @honeywhippedfeta<\/a> (15K followers)<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n