Canadian content creators bracing for U.S. TikTok ban
Posted Jan 16, 2025 6:40 pm.
Last Updated Jan 16, 2025 7:01 pm.
With a looming TikTok ban in the United States closer to becoming a reality, TikTokers in Canada are bracing for the impact it will have on their online following.
Canadian creators will still be able to use the app and post content, but for some, the U.S. ban will mean a large majority of their followers will disappear.
“I’m going to be losing 83 per cent of my audience,” says Seraphina Ellen.
Ellen, an aspiring singer and Taylor Swift tribute artist from Calgary, has garnered millions of view on the platform and has nearly 100,000 followers. Unlike in the U.S., Canadians don’t get paid per view on the app.
“I started actually livestreaming my singing progress on TikTok and doing two to three hour streams of just singing some Taylor Swift songs,” she says. “Someone might spend a dollar on a little animation that has a heart pop out, and I’ll get like 55 cents from that dollar.”
She says she’s made up to $80 USD per livestream.
Ellen’s charity livestreams have raised hundreds for cancer research and local groups helping sexual assault survivors. When TikTok gets turned off for Americans, she’ll lost a lot of that support.
“They help pay for my singing lessons,” she says. “Sometimes when I’m bad at singing and I say, ‘hey, don’t worry, all gift go towards singing lessons,’ people are part of the change.”
The funds have allowed her to take her S-Eras Tour to places like Edmonton and Vancouver. Despite the shows being in Canada, she still saw a lot of support from Americans.
“People were buying tickets even though they weren’t in Canada,” says Ellen. “Then they were donating those tickets to Vancouver swifties.”
Ellen says Instagram, Youtube and a newly popular app called ‘Rednote’ are where she’ll be posting now, hoping to stay connected to her American fans.
The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing a free speech challenge to the federal law that would see the app shut down in a few days.
A lawyer for TikTok and ByteDance, its Chinese owner, told the court last week that TikTok will “go dark” on Sunday unless the justices grant it a temporary reprieve or strike down the law.