TikTok’s Stars Are Less Worried About a Ban Than You Might Think

It sometimes seems like the threat of a TikTok ban has been around for almost as long as TikTok itself. While it merged with Musical.ly in the US in August 2018, the platform took off in the early days of the pandemic, quickly launching a generation of new internet stars like Charli D’Amelio and eventually becoming a virtual town square that spawned memes and discourse (never forget “rawdogging” flights). It was in the summer of 2020 that then-President Donald Trump, who begins his second term this month, proposed banning or forcing a sale of the app to address concerns about its Chinese owners, Bytedance.

After four years, the will they, won’t they finally comes before the Supreme Court today. Trump has signaled his desire to now save the app, leaving current TikTok users in an even more confusing limbo. Meanwhile, TikTok has threatened to shut down in the US on January 19 (the night before the inauguration) if the court does not reject or delay the case.

To get a sense of what’s at stake in the decision, GQ recently spoke to eight New York-based TikTok stars whose videos typify the authentic, personal, and sunny content that dominates the app today: Serena Shahidi (who posts cultural commentary), Ryan Winter (fashion and days in the life as a coffee shop owner), Andrew Licout (fashion, furniture, and lifestyle), Clara Perlmutter (fashion and beauty), Fia James (music and comedy), Kristijan Todorovski (menswear OOTDs), Matt Buechele (comedy), and Mark Boutilier (fashion and shopping). These creators, who all started on the app in 2020 or 2021, have built careers there. Todorovski was working as a supervisor at a trucking company before he found fame on the For You page and now works as a full-time content creator and model. Fia James was working as a hostess in Boston and making casual TikTok videos on the side until her unexpected success allowed her to launch a music career.

This success has been accompanied by a lingering worry that the platform from which it has flowed might at any time get taken away. With the threat more real than ever, they share their thoughts on the ban and what, if anything, comes next for social media. (Watch the creators answer more questions in our video embedded below, or find it on TikTok or Instagram.)

Serena: I kind of don't think it's going to happen. It's just that it's happened so many times before and people have been so dramatic about it that I'm not fully buying into the idea that this one time is the real time. I think it's most likely to happen now rather than all those other times, but there have been so many false alarms.

Andrew: I'm optimistic that it won't affect me that much. There's the work side of it, which is very real, but then again, I was okay before it, I'll be okay after it. There are other platforms out there. But I think for the most part, I'm gonna lose a big community and as a viewer, I'm gonna lose a lot. You learn so much and you get exposed to really talented people and really funny people and I use it to teach myself everyday things or to research a place that I'm traveling to.

Clara: While I am gonna be fine, I'm really concerned for a lot of people I know. I have so many friends whose businesses are sustained on the marketing that they do on TikTok. I blew up while I was studying for the LSAT so there is a high likelihood that if TikTok gets banned I will eventually go back to school.

Matt: I'm not concerned. I see some people being like, “This is serious, this is our rights” and I'm like, “What are you guys talking about?” One, I don't think it's gonna happen, but even if it does, people will migrate [to other platforms].

Ryan: I feel like it's more like a power play that's [related to] other political issues. It's not actually about TikTok in particular. A lot of this started with the previous Trump administration’s hard-on-China stance, and it's funny that he created this thing that was signed into effect by the Biden administration and is now coming back into office [saying] “Actually, don't do it.” There's just this way in which the TikTok ban in particular has made very obvious the role of money in politics. Nothing has anything to do with what's good for people—it has to do with what's good for moneyed people.

Mark: They say all this different stuff about our data and China and this and that, but I feel like if you're on social media, your data's already out. If you're worried about that, you shouldn't even have gotten a smartphone.

Andrew: I was never trying to build a career out of social media. Things on TikTok happened to me out of boredom. I got fired from my job and I started making videos to feel creative and they caught on and I don't think that would have happened on any other platform. What really opened me up to posting on TikTok is nobody knew me there. The family wasn't there, my friends weren't there, I was kind of just doing my own thing.

Serena: I would say it's changed my life a lot. I was studying fashion when I first got on TikTok, and that kind of blows my mind now because it's so not me and my current sense of myself. And I'm glad that TikTok taught me that I do like to speak and I do like building a brand of sorts and making jokes. I really don't think that I would be doing what I'm doing now without TikTok.

Serena: I think one of the strangest things I did was I was working with a financial media company and they brought me to Bitcoin Miami. I did man on the street videos there and it was just so wild and never in a million years would any other path have brought me to Bitcoin Miami.

Ryan: I remember getting my first PR package and [being] like, I was on Medicaid a couple months ago.

Matt: When I left The Tonight Show I thought the next job was going to be a writing job. With the writer's strike, Hollywood kind of imploded for a little bit, and I was like, “I'm so lucky I built up this thing.”

Clara: I think my highlight was [attending] the Charlixcx boiler room.

Serena: My favorite video on TikTok was of someone who had an analog clock and was using some sort of metal stick to dig out the glass, and was saying, “You really don't need glass in a clock.”

Clara: I love cursed videos and I love that trend right now where it's a picture of an insane spread of alcohol and the caption is “He will be hearing from me tonight.”

Fia: I loved how people became genuinely themselves with TikTok and I think that was a trend in a sense. And on top of being super genuine, you realize you were not as alone and that everyone has the same experiences.

Serena: I think it would be funny if we all started making YouTube Shorts because it's so absurd—just filling things with Orbeez and squishing slime.

Clara: There's been some serious success stories in the short form space and I feel like long form could be the next one.

Fia: I'm like, where the hell am I gonna find my information? I learned the craziest, most random pieces of advice and DIY and insights on travel and all these different things. I hope that somebody can emulate the app and maybe make something very similar.

Kristijan: People are gonna be on YouTube way more for sure. Instagram I think will get [resources] poured into it, marketing-wise. TikTok was an app where you were either more long form cinematic, or you were really quick. I feel like Instagram people are more curated, so maybe we'll lose those very casual things, or maybe Instagram will turn into a very casual app.

Serena: Reels are so lame, but I love it. I had to get a lock box from Amazon.com for my phone because I got too invested in a throuples breakup that was happening on Instagram Reels and I was like, “I can't live like this anymore.”

Serena: Probably negative. It's brought a lot of people a lot of joy and brought them to things that they wouldn't otherwise know about. But I also see the way young people interact in day-to-day life and how TikTok has shaped their personalities and it does concern me.

Fia: Net positive, I think. I just remember the days of being in the pandemic and not feeling as alone. It showed a lot of humanity and what was going on and what we were all trying to digest at the time. I look at it as a positive. It changed my life.