How will the TikTok ban affect the massively popular app’s LGBTQ+ users?

The U.S. may ban the video-creation and -sharing app TikTok in under a year, thanks to a bill recently signed into law by President Joe Biden. If that happens, its LGBTQ+ users will lose a discussion space for marginalized communities, and its queer content creators will lose both money and widespread exposure.

Some tech journalists say a national TikTok ban will spur developers to create similar apps where TikTok’s estimated 150 million active monthly U.S. users will migrate. But the incident reveals a common issue with social media platforms: They don’t always provide stable, long-term homes for influencers and their followers. As such, both groups must now figure out how to safeguard the communities and revenues they’ve built over time so that they’re not entirely dependent on a single app’s future.

Related:

TikTok designer’s response to a customer who came out as nonbinary will melt your heart

Marcus Pork knew just how to handle what he deemed the “Emergency They/Them Situation.”

TikTok became massively popular after its 2016 debut, but U.S. legislators and intelligence officials have worried its Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, may give Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities access to the app’s user data, suppress content critical of China, or push pro-Chinese propaganda to users, the Associated Press reported. Naturally, ByteDance has denied all of this.

Never Miss a Beat

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.

Daily

Weekly

Good News

Nonetheless, these worries compelled a bipartisan group of legislators and President Biden to approve a new law giving ByteDance nine months to divest from the app’s U.S.-user base and sell it off to an American buyer. If ByteDance begins negotiations to do so, the law gives them an additional 90 days to seal the deal.

However, ByteDance has pledged to sue, stating that the law is unconstitutional and that the parent company protects user data from the Chinese government. If so, the lawsuit could pause the legislation from going into effect for several years while courts decide on the issues. Even if ByteDance loses its lawsuit, the company could alternately decide to end its presence in the U.S. altogether rather than sell to an American buyer.

TikTok has become massively popular with LGBTQ+ users

TikTok doesn’t have a perfect relationship with its LGBTQ+ users. The app has been caught censoring LGBTQ+ content and suppressing fat, queer, and disabled content creators. In 2023, The Wall Street Journal revealed that TikTok maintained a list of worldwide users who watch LGBTQ+ videos, leading some to worry that such a list could leak to potential blackmailers. A 2021 Media Matters report found TikTok’s algorithm promoting anti-LGBTQ+ content even though some of it violated the app’s hate speech policies.

Nevertheless, the site has a large and active LGBTQ+ and allied user base. It’s unclear how many TikTok users self-identify as such, but Millennials and Gen Z make up an estimated 70% of the app’s worldwide user base — both generations are most likely either to identify as LGBTQ+ or to support the queer community.

An estimated 23.9 million posts on TikTok are hashtagged as #LGBTQ. The app’s unique hashtag, video editing, and commenting features (along with its algorithm) have created other large, special-interest communities that overlap with #LGBTQ content, such as #BlackTikTok for racial justice, #Gamer for video game fans, and #Healing for spiritual inspiration and mental health advice.

TikTok hashtags like #LGBT and #Pride had reportedly received over 66 billion and 10 billion views respectively near the end of 2023. Other hashtags like #QueerSounds and #QueerOwnedBusiness helped promote numerous LGBTQ+ musicians and entrepreneurs.

Some popular #LGBTQ videos feature neurodivergent, plus-sized, and non-white content creators — types who are traditionally under-represented in mainstream media. These creators include performers, experts, and influencers people who share their talents, intersectional outlooks, and advice with an audience craving content from people who look like them.

TikTok highlighted some of these creators in its You Belong Here hub and Trailblazers campaign during Pride Month 2023.

The sense of community on the app is aided by TikTok’s a robust commenting community and the app’s quick edit and “Duet” features. These features let users quickly post side-by-side reaction videos to others’ works. Many users also consider the app’s “For you” algorithm very effective, as it logs each user’s viewing time and engagements to then recommend content tailored to one’s personal tastes.

While social media regularly gets blamed for endangering people’s safety or worsening their mental health, evidence suggests that TikTok may be improving it. A 2023 mental health survey conducted by the Trevor Project found that 53% of young LGBTQ+ people of color and 45% of their white peers reported feeling safe and understood on TikTok — much more than the smaller percentages who reported feeling the same way on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Discord, Twitch, Steam, and Reddit.

The aforementioned report also cited studies showing that online spaces can improve young queer people’s mental health and well-being by allowing them to explore diverse sexual orientations and gender identities and to connect with peers and social support.

The business side: How the TikTok ban might affect creators

TikTok creators have made thousands through the app’s Creator Rewards Program, which reportedly pays creators between $0.50 and $1 per 1,000 views — so 1 million views, for example, might pay between $500 and $1,000.

Creators with larger followings can make hundreds or thousands of dollars through branded and sponsored videos. TikTok also offers ad revenue sharing for creators with over 100,000 followers, an affiliate program for creators who sell products via videos or livestreams, built-in monetization tools like monetary virtual “gifts,” and a Creativity Program fund that pays creators who post longer content.

Many small-business owners in the U.S. also use Tik to advertise, especially Black and minority-owned businesses, according to NBC News. Creators use the app to get creative inspiration and keep up with current trends.

“‘Social media Influencer’ is almost to be looked at as the new print and the new form of radio and TV advertising,” TikTok travel influencer Jensen Savannah told the Associated Press. “It’s going to bring your dollar much farther than it is in traditional marketing.”

If TikTok is banned in the U.S. — just as it has already been in Afghanistan, India, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Senegal, and Somalia — it won’t only affect U.S. users. It will also harm international creators and businesses who depend on U.S. viewers for revenue and sales.

TikTok’s former users could migrate to other similar apps, including YouTube Shorts, Facebook, and Instagram Reels, or possibly any new video-sharing social network that pops up. It’s likely that viewers, consumers, and marketers will also switch to these new apps too. However, the displaced creators will need to rebuild their large followings and revenue streams from scratch, and they’ll be subject to these platforms’ policies and revenue programs, which may be more restrictive than TikTok’s.

Whether content creators use TikTok or other platforms, they should back up all their video content by downloading their online videos and cross-post them to other video-sharing platforms. Additionally, they should urge users to follow them on other platforms and “own their audience” by collecting their email for a direct contact list. Content creators might want to create alternate content and collaborations via newsletters or podcasts. They may also want to sell digital products, consultations, or coaching sessions or figure out other ways to monetize memberships and subscriptions.

It’s common for users to leave an app after it shuts down or changes policies. In 2021, Facebook’s algorithm dramatically reduced the organic reach of publishers and content creators, leaving both to seek traffic elsewhere. In 2018, Tumblr banned adult content, and adult content creators and fans migrated to Twitter and other platforms that allow such content.

If these other incidents are any indication, future content creators will need to continually take precautions to prepare for such upheaval, or else leave their work and income subject to market and political forces.

Don't forget to share: