The U.S. is considering a TikTok ban. Philadelphia content creators don’t care.

If TikTok were to be banned tomorrow, 90-year-old TikTok sensation Dolores Paolino wouldn’t know the difference, at least according to her grandson and manager Julian Giacobbo. The 20-year-old Drexel University marketing major said his South Philly grandma — otherwise known by her 2.4 million followers as @DollyBroadway — only has a landline and seldom understands the source of her fame.

Paolino’s indifference may come with her age, but it’s the dominant vibe among Philadelphia content creators.

Ignited by the downing of a Chinese spy balloon, Congress is revisiting a sweeping ban of TikTok that would allow U.S consumers who already have TikTok to keep using it but prevent major app stores like Apple and Google from making TikTok available for download. While the ban is unlikely to pass, it’s garnering bipartisan support, and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify before Congress in March.

Despite the ban’s newfound relevance, Philly content creators who make money on TikTok are not concerned about losing access to their chief income stream.

Some aren’t following the news. And for those who are, the ban feels unlikely and distant, so far beyond their control that worrying is a waste of time — especially when Instagram exists.

“I didn’t even know until you told me,” said Giacobbo, the manager behind @DollyBroadway.

Giacobbo said he “isn’t really scared” about the potential for a TikTok ban because his grandma isn’t.

“She’s 90. She doesn’t need the money” from TikTok advertisements, said Giacobbo. “We’d just keep making videos anyway because this is about making memories with my grandma.”

Bran Edelman — a Fishtown TikToker whose brand of “gay chaos” involves a mix of 20-something drunk escapades and musings on becoming an influencer — has a similar stance.

“I don’t have any power in the situation, so why would I worry about it?” he said. “What I can do is continue to make videos and get my bag.”

Edelman, 26, left a full-time job in merchandising at GoPuff to dive into content creation in May. Now with 380,000 followers on TikTok and 20,000 on Instagram, he said he’s “significantly more financially successful than I ever was in a 9-to-5.”

About 70% of his monthly income comes from TikTok brand partnerships, said Edelman, who is likewise unconcerned about what a TikTok ban could mean for his livelihood. Should a ban happen, Edelman would try moving his following over to Instagram. If that didn’t work, he said, it’s back to corporate America.

“I did this as a want, not a need,” Edelman said. “I don’t think a ban would be the end of the world for me or any creator.”

Creators believe TikTok is too ingrained in our lives and economy for the federal government to ban it, even if some have a shoddy-at-best understanding of what led to concerns surrounding the platform.

“I think it’s all talk,” said Cass Foley, 31, a content creator who broadcasts Philly restaurant and activity recommendations to 177,000 followers on TikTok and another 103,000 on Instagram. She and Edelman said neither of their management teams have communicated with them about how the potential ban could impact their ability to sell advertisements.

After an internal probe revealed TikTok employees were surveilling journalists who covered the app and improperly accessing data from U.S users, FBI director Christopher Wray said in November that TikTok posed “national security concerns.”

From there, President Joe Biden banned TikTok from being downloaded and used on work phones for federal employees, while states from New Jersey to Alabama instituted similar bans that also covered college campuses. Pennsylvania could be next, regardless of whether the federal ban that would pull TikTok from app stores passes.

Frances Corry, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center on Digital Culture and Society who studies how social media platforms die, agrees with the influencers: TikTok isn’t going anywhere.

She would be “surprised” if a federal ban went through, given that concerns about how social media apps use and share data exist across Big Tech.

“The U.S has much bigger issues when it comes to ethical data governance and consumer protections than TikTok,” said Corry. “All the major social media platforms headquartered in Silicon Valley should be included in a larger conversation about how to handle data collection.”

TikTok also doesn’t show tell-tale signs of dying naturally, explained Corry. You can tell a platform is headed for the social media graveyard when high-value users leave, such as A-list influencers or heavy lurkers.

That isn’t happening, as TikTok continues to gain in popularity. At one point, the app dethroned Google as the most-visited website on the internet.

If a ban were to curtail access to TikTok, however, the consequences would look different for different classes of users. Top-tier creators would be just fine, said Corry, but those just gaining followers would likely not find the same success elsewhere.

“It’s the folks that don’t have agency and power who would really lose out if TikTok was banned, especially if they haven’t diversified their audience to other platforms,” Corry said.

All signs point to Instagram as the natural landing place for influencers displaced by TikTok since the platform has similar features — and can be more lucrative.

Both Instagram and TikTok have application-only programs for content creators to earn money for using the platform, though TikTok’s is known for notoriously low monthly payouts.

Foley, the lifestyle influencer, said she “makes pennies” from TikTok’s Creator Fund, but earnings from Instagram’s Reels Boost Fund pay for her health insurance.

Foley began transitioning her following over to Instagram in December 2020, after watching advertisers pull out of TikTok partnerships because of privacy concerns regarding personalized advertisements. To date, Foley’s Instagram following is nearly 60% of the one she built on TikTok and her engagement is higher.

Foley said this leaves her less concerned about a TikTok ban hurting her income, but she does worry about creators who haven’t been planning.

“Instagram is super saturated now,” she warned. “It takes a lot longer to build consistent engagement.” Foley recommends creators newer to Instagram lower their expectations of what virality looks like and build regular posting habits — even if it means losing followers at first.

Mostly, she hopes other influencers start getting hip to how policy might impact them.

“If there’s one thing I don’t play about, it’s my money,” she said. “This is my livelihood.”