For TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users, it’s a serious case of whiplash. On Sunday, the short-form video platform briefly went dark. Then on Monday, it was back again, along with a message thanking President Donald Trump for intervening. However, TikTok’s fate is far from certain, and design influencers who have built an audience on the platform are nervously watching the story unfold.

“If [a permanent ban] were to happen, I think it’s going to be extremely devastating for influencers, small businesses and creators—people who really rely on the platform for their means of living,” says Bilal Rehman, a Houston-based designer who has amassed more than 560,000 followers on TikTok. “It’s pulling basically an entire economy out of the world of social media.”

The latest chapter in the TikTok saga began last year, when, citing national security concerns, Congress passed a law requiring the app’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell off the social media platform’s U.S. business by January 19, 2025, or face a nationwide ban. No credible buyer emerged, and despite TikTok’s last-ditch appeals to the Supreme Court, the law went into effect on Sunday.

The issue has been complicated by the election of President Trump, who initially proposed a version of the ban in his first term, only to change his position on the campaign trail last year. On Monday, Trump signed an executive order delaying the TikTok ban, though it’s not clear if the order will stand up to a legal challenge. In other words, the platform’s future is cloudy.

Since its debut in the U.S. in 2017, TikTok has launched a new generation of social media stars, small businesses and microtrends. (The platform claims it drove $14.7 billion in revenue for creators in 2023; independent estimates are hard to come by.) In the design industry, the potential ban arrives at a transitional moment. For many designers, Instagram has not lost its status as the de facto digital town square, and the adoption of TikTok has come slowly—especially compared to the speed at which it has taken over fashion, beauty and music. But in recent years—particularly for industry newcomers—the platform has become a career jump-starter, a marketing tool, a lead generator and a source of additional revenue in the form of brand partnerships. For creators like Rehman, the potential ban arrives just as TikTok has begun to serve as a place to build momentum.

Others have mixed feelings. Washington, D.C.–based designer and content creator Imani Keal (92,400 TikTok followers) has had a love-hate relationship with the app. “I’ve never really been a huge fan of TikTok as a creator. … I like it, but it’s never been the platform that’s paid the best for me, and I always had weird [algorithm] issues with it,” says Keal, who got burnt out by the algorithm’s lack of consistency compared to on Instagram, where she got her start and has since gained a following of 111,000.

Still, she doesn’t deny the positive influence the platform has had on design. “TikTok was great [because it] democratized things. Certain Black creators weren’t really able to get to a million followers on another platform, but on TikTok, suddenly they could. I know people who were struggling, who had been on YouTube for years and would never reach a million followers, but then they get on TikTok, and then two months in, [with] a couple of viral videos, they’re getting a million followers.”

A loss of a loyal viewership—along with the new clients that often follow—is what many of the platform’s design creators are most worried about. “It’s going to affect my business in the sense of new eyes, because that’s been the biggest thing that it’s done. It’s gotten us new design projects all around the world just from the pure exposure that the algorithm has,” says Rehman.

In addition to providing designers with a new pool of potential clients, further opportunities arose when the platform became a source of investment for brands that were willing to take a chance on TikTok’s newer voices. Many creators used it as a jumping-off point for new business ventures and lucrative brand deals (Keal got her first brand partnership off of the app), though the direct revenue from TikTok’s Creativity Program (and its predecessor, the Creator Fund)—a pool of money the platform doles out to creators for popular content—gets mixed reviews.

“The [fund] has not been lucrative for me at all. I think I’ve made like $800 max on there, and I have videos with millions and millions of views,” says Los Angeles–based designer Tyka Pryde. (Keal’s revenue from the program ranges from $10 to $25 a month.) “On the other hand, I have made a lot of money from brand deals, and that will be sad to have those opportunities go away,” adds Pryde.

Though TikTok is back online for now, many creators have spent the past 12 months trying to grow an audience on other apps. “I started trying to figure out the Instagram algorithm and how Meta works, and was able to get some good growth through Instagram Reels,” says Pryde. “I have [about] 23,000 followers on Instagram, as opposed to [nearly 85,000] on TikTok, so I’m sad to miss out on that community, but luckily, my business isn’t hinged upon TikTok.”

Keal has dedicated more time to YouTube while maintaining her Instagram, newsletter and blog, and she has used [AI-powered automated content distributor] Repurpose.io to transfer all of her TikToks to YouTube Shorts. She’s also sought to grow a presence in the traditional design media through features in Architectural Digest and Apartment Therapy. “I was doing those things to make sure that even if this app disappeared tomorrow, you could still Google me and find the work,” she says.

While many creators have spent time and energy building up on other sites, Keal says that some will get left behind—if the ban comes to pass. “Every time something happens on one of these apps, people get on here and they talk at length about, ‘Hey guys, please make sure you are diversifying your platforms.’ It seems like no matter how many times we have that same conversation with people, they don't respond,” she adds. “I’m devastated for [those] people, but if you want to run a business, part of running a good business is protecting it from the changing landscape.”

With TikTok’s future still uncertain, creators like Pryde are standing by. If a deal to save the app can’t be reached, she’s planning to look on the bright side. “TikTok is my favorite app, and I’m going to miss it,” she says. “[But] I’m also trying to look at it positively: Maybe this will give me a lot more of my brain back.”

Update: January 21, 2025
This article, originally published January 17, has been updated to reflect further developments in TikTok’s on-again, off-again U.S. ban.