Bay Area mom says 90% of her income is from TikTok as app's future still uncertain

Monday, January 20, 2025
Bay Area mom says 90% of her income is from TikTok
Many influencers rely on TikTok for their livelihoods. Bay Area mom Anna Brown says 90% of her income is made by creating content for the app.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- TikTok restored its service on Sunday after a temporary shutdown Saturday night that left 170 million American users unable to access the app. The outage also disrupted many influencers who rely on the platform for their livelihoods.

San Francisco content creator Anna Brown, known to her 2.4 million TikTok followers as "AnnaTwinsies," says the ban was worrisome. Her content often shows her daily life with her two sets of twins.

Brown tells ABC7 News she earns between $5,000 and $20,000 per branded post and 90% of her income comes from TikTok.

"The last couple of weeks, everyone has been talking about it," Brown said. "But I was literally thinking they will figure something out to prevent it. Some say maybe a VPN will work, or you could have someone abroad manage the account, but no one for sure knows what's going to happen."

RELATED: TikTok thanks Trump after it begins restoring service to US users

Brown noted that she has a backup plan if TikTok becomes unavailable.

"Luckily for me, my Instagram account started taking off this year," she said. A check of her Instagram shows over one million followers. "I would probably be able to make it without TikTok."

TikTok released a statement thanking former President Donald Trump, who is expected to issue an executive order delaying any potential ban for 90 days. However, the details of such an order remain unclear. The law allows for a president to do that as long as Tiktok's Chinese owners are in the process of selling. But parent company ByteDance has said it will not sell.

Trump previously issued an executive order in 2020 aiming to remove TikTok from U.S. app stores, citing national security concerns.

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