For Kentucky content creators, losing their TikTok community would be ‘devastating’
For TikTok users and creators, Jan. 19 is a date that has loomed large in recent weeks: It’s the day a ban on TikTok in the United States could go into effect.
In Kentucky, content creators say losing the community and people they’ve met through the app would be “devastating.” Some also worried about the financial loss that would come with losing the app.
The ban could start as soon as Sunday, though it’s not yet clear exactly how the ban will play out. President Joe Biden signed legislation that would ban the Chinese-owned app last April, and the case went before the Supreme Court last week. On Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump said he was considering an executive order once in office to suspend the ban.
The ban focuses on app stores, like those owned by Apple and Google. If the app stores distribute or update TikTok, they could face penalties from the government.
The ban stems from concerns about the Chinese government potentially stealing user’s data, or using that information against Americans.
Katie Combs, who posts as @lifeofkatieann, began posting on TikTok in the spring of 2023, when she was pregnant with her first child. She has more than 620,000 followers across her two accounts, and started gaining followers with content about her life in small-town Eastern Kentucky.
While Combs said she’s not yet confident TikTok will disappear completely, she worries about losing the community she’s found on the app. It also gave her an outlet after having her daughter, and a way to connect with people, she said.
“It’s a community of people that I’ve built and that I can connect with,” Combs said. “I’m a stay-at-home mom, and it gets lonely. Motherhood can be lonely and trying, and it’s nice to have a community of people there that you can talk to and laugh with.”
Combs said TikTok is a job for her — her income from the app has allowed her husband to take a new job with fewer hours, while also allowing her to stay at home with their daughter.
Combs said she loves that TikTok is normal people sharing their lives. While other apps may highlight creators with millions of followers, anyone can find a following on TikTok, she said.
“I feel like it’s so refreshing to see normal people on an app talk about their normal, everyday things, rather than these big creators or celebrities,” Combs said. “I think it’s important that we all realize hey, we’re all just humans. We’re all just trying to make it day-by-day.”
Combs is experimenting with posting her content on other platforms, like Instagram and YouTube, but the community and interaction doesn’t compare to TikTok, she said.
“TikTok did change my life for the better,” Combs said. “It gave me confidence after motherhood, that I still could do something outside of raising children, and I hope it doesn’t go away.”
‘TikTok is completely different’ from other social media
Jess Adkins, who posts as @watchkittyshrink, also said TikTok changed her life. She started posting in 2020 as she was grieving the death of her grandmother, and now posts videos about cooking and meals. Adkins has around 468,000 followers and lives in Pikeville.
Like Combs, Adkins said losing the community on TikTok would be “devastating.” She has accounts on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, which she’ll pivot to if TikTok becomes unusable.
Adkins has a series called “Suppertime in Appalachia,” where she posts her meals and about Appalachian cooking. She said it feels like she’s “sitting down to dinner with family” in those posts.
“TikTok is completely different,” Adkins said. “They build people up, they make people feel important, like a part of their family. I’ve had people come up to me and say ‘You feel like my cousin’ or ‘You feel like my aunt,’ and it makes TikTok feel like a family.”
Adkins said she works two other jobs in addition to TikTok, but TikTok is where most of her income comes from. To lose that income source would impact her and her family.
“I’ve been able to get myself and my family in a financial place where we don’t have to worry as much,” Adkins said. “I still work three jobs, but it’s been a lot less stressful to know that you have that money that comes in from a good, honest way of making a living.”
How a local business uses TikTok
Rick Paynter, who owns The Kentucky Shop in Lexington with his wife, also said the hardest part about saying goodbye to TikTok is the loss of the community he’s found there.
Paynter, who said he’s always had an interest in entertainment and comedy, admits he was late to join the platform. He started posting on TikTok at the beginning of 2024 and calls himself “The Kentucky Dad.” Over the course of a year, The Kentucky Shop handle has attracted about 65,000 followers and more than a million likes on videos.
Paynter said the account has earned around $700 from the creator fund in the last year — the program that allows creators to earn money from videos — so his main concerns are not about a loss of income.
“The biggest thing for me is honestly sadness,” Paynter said. “It really feels like you’re losing a friend, and really feels like you’re losing your community.”
The Kentucky Shop’s smallest audience of any platform is TikTok — they have 205,000 followers on Instagram and 327,000 followers on Facebook. But the community on TikTok feels more personal, and came about more organically, Paynter said. While they use paid advertising on other platforms, their TikTok following has come from posting about living in Kentucky, and about college sports.
He said their TikTok is kinder than on other platforms, like Facebook, and joked that he’s been able to find commonalities even with University of Tennessee fans when posting about sports.
Paynter said there hasn’t been a huge impact on sales from posting (paid advertisements on other platforms have a bigger impact, he said), although he did note they sold more hats in 2024 after he started wearing the company’s hats in the TikToks he created.
“I think the difference is that people on TikTok are getting to know me and my wife,” Paynter said. “They know who they’re buying from, which builds trust. We’ve always been at the forefront with who we are and stuff like that on other social networks, but it just doesn’t have that same sort of impact.”
This story was originally published January 16, 2025 at 12:01 PM.