TikTok’s ownership shake-up sends creators scrambling amid chaos and uncertainty 

A new terms of service greeted users on January 23, with Wired reporting the now U.S.-owned app could potentially be collecting more data about its users than previous ownership, including precise location tracking. And the news creators who were struggling with the platform’s inconsistent moderation worried the app’s issues suggested it was adopting an even more rigid stance on moderating content.

A newly created X account for TikTok USDS Joint Venture states the platform’s services are struggling due to a “power outage at a U.S. data center,” so the technical issues are likely not the new norm. 

But will the moderation and surveillance problems persist with TikTok, and if so, what does it mean for creators and brands who once relied on the platform for revenue, and more importantly, to share crucial news updates?

Creator woes

Over the weekend, TikTok creators reported that their Creator Rewards (the monetization program for the platform) tab was gone and/or glitching. “The money in TikTok creator rewards is gone!!” wrote TikToker OmarsBigSister on X “I had at least $180 YESTERDAY.” 

Other creators replied to that post, stating that they too were missing money from their Creator Rewards program. A subreddit dedicated to TikTok monetization is filled with creators worried about their viewership and monetization, as well. Another creator claimed they had just signed their first brand deal and now are “not even sure [they] have a platform anymore.”

Tech journalist Taylor Lorenz, who previously spoke with Digiday about the platform’s moderation issues, confirmed that, as of January 25, her creator page was “not even showing.”

The Creator Rewards issues happened alongside users struggling to upload content to the platform, and concerns with the new terms of service being overly surveillant. 

Couple all of that with the tense political state of the United States (and the killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minnesota over the weekend), and there was widespread panic on TikTok, X and other platforms – so much so that UpScrolled, an alternative social platform, is currently sitting higher than TikTok on the Apple store rankings in the 12th spot. 

“Some very big creators have fully and completely deleted their TikTok account,” V Spehar of Under the Desk News, whose TikTok account has over 3.7 million followers, told Digiday. “They have just straight up said, ‘I’m done. I’ve deleted my account. I had a million followers, 5 million followers, and I’m deleting it.’”

Wait and see

An official TikTok USDS Joint Venture spokesperson sent Digiday the following statement: “Our U.S. community of users and businesses will be able to thrive and grow on TikTok and continue to have the same experience they already know and love.” The spokesperson also confirmed that the monetization problems were “part of the same technical issues.” 

“The way TikTok operates is that when they are working on an issue or a flip, they completely deprioritize other functions of the app,” Spehar explained. “Losing the Creator dashboard, losing new videos being posted, likes not matching the comments, all of that is because they move staff that normally would work on making sure those things are running into whatever big project they’re doing. And then they come back and sort of like, ‘Clean up on aisle five.’”

Spehar is concerned that technical issues could persist going forward. “I worry that the platform may not have the time, talent and staffing that we used to, and that’s going to affect everybody,” Spehar said. 

Journalist Aaron Parnas, who has over 4.8 million followers on TikTok, told Digiday the app is “getting better” as of Monday, January 26, and stressed that the issue seemed to be happening to everyone, not just political content creators.  “Everyone had the same issue, app-wide, no videos would post or anything,” Parnas said. “Now they’re posting, but they’re not really getting views. I don’t know what’s happening, but we’ll see…I wouldn’t say I’m optimistic, I’m in a very ‘wait and see’ kind of mode.”

Digiday reached out to several advertising and marketing agencies, some of which suggested it was too early to comment on future activations or marketing plans on the platform. 

“What we’re seeing on TikTok right now with monetization tabs disappearing, posting glitches, and moderation inconsistencies is disruptive, but it’s not entirely unexpected. This platform has always been in flux, especially as it experiments with monetization and regulation at scale,” said Deneka Dosant, director of talent at creator agency Kensington Grey. “From a brand perspective, there hasn’t been a meaningful pullback; if anything, brands understand this is part of the TikTok ecosystem and are continuing to invest because the reach and impact are still unmatched,” said Dosant. “As managers, the best advice we can give creators is not to panic or over-index on any single revenue stream”

As for moderation and surveillance, it’s too early to tell what TikTok will be like in the near-future, but politics and news creators have reason to be worried. Many believe the platform’s coverage of Palestine in 2024 and 2025 is what led to such an aggressive takeover, and Larry Ellison, COO of Oracle, one of TikTok’s new owners, has spoken previously about the benefits of surveilling people. 

“The new group of owners are approved by Trump and mostly all allies of Trump…we will see censorship,” journalists Brian and Ed Krassenstein told Digiday in a joint statement. 

The chaos of this past weekend has put TikTok in a state of flux, but it’s too soon to tell where it will go from here.