In the United States, French content creators are preparing for the possible ban on Tiktok on American soil. Most rely on Youtube or Instagram.
Will stay? Won't stay? In the United States, TikTok's days are numbered. Last April, Congress voted by a large majority a text opening the door to a possible ban on TikTok.
More precisely, its parent company Bytedance, based in China, would be forced to sell the social network, under penalty of having to cease operating on American soil. The application is notably accused of helping Beijing to spy on and manipulate its 170 million users in the United States, and therefore, threaten the security of the country.
“It’s a bit extreme”
This Saturday, January 18, a few hours before the deadline, TikTok made its online application inaccessible in the United States, carrying out its threat for lack of guarantees from the Biden government, while indicating that Donald Trump “will work on a solution ” with the platform to “restore” it. Enough to worry many content creators, who have made Tiktok, and more broadly social networks, their livelihood.
This vote, “it's a bit extreme”, complains TiboPov, at the microphone of France Inter. “Everyone has a Tiktok account, there are a lot of people who make a living from it or who earn extra money with Tiktok,” recalls the Nice native who arrived in Miami in 2024. Thibault launched his account less than a year ago. He shares anecdotes about life in the United States with his 22,000 subscribers. “The objective was to make content in English, and I see that the American audience was growing. I could have potentially reached more and more people by growing my account,” laments the videographer.
An opinion shared by Lu_mlllr, expatriate au pair in the United States. “I find it crazy because Tiktok generates I don’t know how much money,” exclaims the content creator followed by 266,000 subscribers in a video.
“I've been sharing my life with you on social networks for two and a half years. On January 19, I'm going to wake up and I won't have Tiktok anymore,” she continues.
Get interested in Instagram
But she doesn't intend to sit back and do nothing. The young woman has already thought up some backup plans. “I have a French Tiktok and a VPN so I don't really know if I'll get banned, but since I live here, maybe. Worst case scenario, I'll just post you Reels on Instagram”, she resigns herself.
For their part, Alex and Tom, at the origin of the ATFrenchies account, have been organizing for almost a year. “The majority of our community is located in the United States, mainly in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago,” analyzes the duo to France Inter.
“We knew we were going to lose a part of our community with whom we have shared our stories for four years,” say Alex and Tom. So, “we have already anticipated its closure and redirected our followers to our other platforms.”
The friends are now followed by 1.5 million subscribers on Instagram, compared to 2.4 million on Tiktok.
-The Meta group's platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp) are particularly popular with content creators looking for an escape. According to a rapport de First Insight40% of content creators surveyed indicated they would turn to Facebook. More than a third cited Instagram as their best option.
“Youtube really pays better than Tiktok”
This is the case with Mamanfroggy. This Frenchwoman, expatriate in Uncle Sam's country, made herself known by sharing her life as a stay-at-home mother in the United States to her 212,000 subscribers on Tiktok. For now, she is “considering her options.”
“The plan is simply that I continue to do what I was doing there, but on YouTube and Instagram. If you really like my content, don’t hesitate to subscribe to my accounts,” encourages She.
“Even if I earned a pretty good living on Tiktok, it doesn’t particularly scare me that they banned the application. In life, when one door closes, another opens,” the influencer philosophizes.
However, the timing is not ideal for the expatriate mother on the other side of the Atlantic. Her husband changed jobs and lost a large part of his salary. At the same time, the couple had difficulty selling their old house. “There was a lot more money going out than money coming in,” says the housewife. But Maman Froggy prefers to remain positive who sees an opportunity in the ban on Tiktok.
“As you know, I've been talking about Youtube for a long time. I already opened the channel, but I haven't published a video because the little time I have to work, in general, I dedicate on Tiktok So if they ban the app, maybe that's the kick in the ass I needed to really get started on YouTube,” she enthuses.
Miser sur Donald Trump
Especially since “Youtube really pays better than Tiktok,” she recalls. The Google platform pays 45% of the advertising revenue generated by Shorts short videos to the creators. For long formats, the figure rises to 55%. For its part, Tiktok only has a fixed amount fund for influencers, with no revenue sharing.
If that's not enough, the videographer is even considering retraining and returning to her old job. “When my last child goes to school, I will do again what I did before, so coaching au pairs, managing social networks for other companies…”, imagines Maman Froggy.
“And then seeing how Trump loves Tiktok, I tell myself that even if they ban it, there is a very good chance that they will end up bringing it back in one way or another,” she concludes. The president-elect has changed his views on the social network since last spring, after having himself sought to have it banned in 2020.
Donald Trump, who has 14.8 million subscribers on Tiktok since his registration in June, had notably asked the Supreme Court, which is examining the constitutionality of the law which threatens Tiktok, by asking it to suspend the law. This would allow the new president-elect to resolve the matter “by political means” once in power. The Republican's inauguration will also take place on January 20, the day after the ban on the application.
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