The imminent shutdown of TikTok in the U.S., expected to affect about 170 million accounts, may offer Canadian users a boost by offering greater exposure to global creators.
The globally used social media platform for content creation is getting banned in the U.S.
The application that was released in 2016 has seen exponential growth in users and has supplied a vast amount of people with opportunities to reach others around the world. Americans play one of the biggest roles in video making on the app and now those influencers are being cut out due to the ban to be imposed by federal law set to come into effect on Jan. 19.
The Chinese parent company, ByteDance and its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Shou Zi Chew, have been told to sell their U.S. operations or they will be enacting this nationwide ban.
With the impending halt of the app in the U.S., many are drifting to TikTok alternatives.
Apps like Lemon8, owned by ByteDance and Neptune, a beta application still in development.
There are other familiar social media platforms available including YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and Snapchat Spotlight.
However, the app that has seen an influx of creators and not just Americans is RedNote or Xiaohongshu in Chinese, which is the biggest app in China and is similar to TikTok.
Robert Clapperton, associate professor of Professional Communication at the Creative School and Toronto Metropolitan University believes there will be challenges in switching over.
“You develop a following,” Clapperton said. “I don’t know if it’s that easy, if you have 300,000 followers on TikTok to all of a sudden have those exact same 300,000 followers jump to Instagram or jump to YouTube, find you and follow you.”
Due to the migration of all these influencers away from TikTok, the rest of the world who still can use the app freely will see an impact on their feed.
Much of the consumed content is made by Americans and although Canada may not be affected by the ban, the fewer number of videos produced, and the reach of Canadian influencers will be noticeable.
Arbaaz Ghani, director at public relations and digital marketing agency BlueSky Communications in Toronto, said in an email with the long shadow the U.S. casts, there is a likelihood of a significant shift in how brands and businesses engage with the platform in Canada.
“There’s no doubt it’s a major moment for social media and digital culture,” Ghani said.
“For content creators and advertisers, this change underscores the importance of diversifying efforts and building a presence across multiple social media platforms,” he said. “With fewer partnerships involving U.S. creators, Canadian audiences may see more global content as brands look to other markets."
Andrew Eganenh, a Humber student in Electrical Techniques, said there are advantages to using these platforms.
“Social media in general has literally brought people out of poverty,” Eganenh said. “A lot of people have made so much from it.”
TikTok has created financial opportunities for many people on the app, not solely through the functions included but also through exposure.
The outreach the app has created for people to interact with brands and businesses has been a major benefit to not only influencers but those companies as well.
“The creator community is resilient. This is a world where tools and platforms change constantly,” Ghani said. “And staying relevant means trying new platforms and testing whether they work for your content style or if you can adapt your style while still staying authentic.”
Canadian TikTok creator Andrian Makhnachov, who has more than 400,000 followers, said in an email response to questions that he believes it is now a "pivotal moment" that shows there are growing tensions between digital platforms, governments, and users.
“As a content creator, I see it as a wake-up call for the industry to think about the implications of platform dependency and what it means for creators and their audiences," he said.
Makhnachov hopes that without the dominant influence that America has, there will be more of an organic push to see more local creators here.
