TikTok content creators who make a living promoting their businesses and personal brands on the app were afraid Sunday that they would have to find new ways to engage consumers and make money as the app's future in the United States remained uncertain.
TikTok told U.S. users that it was beginning to restore service just hours after the popular video-sharing platform went dark in response to a federal ban, which President-elect Donald Trump said he would try to pause by executive order on his first day in office.
Some users reported Sunday that the app was working again, but it remained unavailable for download in Apple and Google's app stores. Others remained locked out of accessing their profiles and the communities they had built online.
Here's how content creators are reacting:
On a typical morning, esthetician and social media personality Lee Zavorskas scrolls on TikTok while she sips coffee. Sunday morning was different - she scribbled a to-do list instead, which included playing with her cats and dog and plotting how to bolster her presence on other platforms like YouTube since TikTok went dark for her Saturday night.
"I'm a 58-year-old content creator that found a seat at the table that's not available on Instagram," Zavorskas said.
While Zavorskas has more followers on Instagram, she found a large crowd of people over the age of 40 on TikTok, making it easier to build her audience. She held out some hope that she would be able to return to the community she found on the app.
"It's like going to your favorite restaurant and ordering your favorite food, and they're like, 'You know what? We took it away,'" she said.
Tiffany Cianci, a Maryland-based content creator who owns small businesses, stopped posting on Twitter and Instagram and cut her advertising with Meta and Google out of frustration.
"It's TikTok or nothing for me," she said.
She thinks lawmakers unfairly punished TikTok for succeeding alongside its profitable competitors. And they played "political football" with an app that millions of small businesses rely on to survive, she said.
"I spoke to small businesses in the last three days that have sobbed on my livestreams, afraid they'll have to lay their employees off tomorrow morning," Cianci said. "They are so afraid because they have other people's lives in their hands."
Tiffany Watson, a 20-year-old beauty content creator, had been making videos since the days of Musical.ly, and was just starting to figure out the kind of content she was passionate about when TikTok went dark.
"The community on TikTok is like nothing else, so it's weird to not have that anymore," she said.
With spare time on her hands, Watson plans to focus on bolstering her presence on Instagram and YouTube. She also wants to devote more time to school as the psychology major and criminal justice minor prepares to graduate from Wingate University in North Carolina and enter "the real world." But being a content creator remains her "main dream," she said.
If Trump lifts the ban, Watson plans to return to TikTok, but said she will "probably be more tuned into my YouTube since this ban has kinda spooked me."
