Suppressed Socials?

A Successful TikTok Creator's Dismal Experience with Youtube and Instagram

I am a creator who is often critical of the U.S. government. 

I have been told my content seems very “produced” compared to others. Which makes sense, because that is my profession. I am a producer. I work in media, and Adobe Premiere is one of the tools of my trade. No big deal.

The reason I mention it is because ever since I started posting content on TikTok, close to a year ago, I was worried it could all go away. I started posting amidst last year’s TikTok-is-about-to-be-banned scare. With that in mind, and since I was making my content in Premiere rather than inside the TikTok app, I have been posting all of my TikToks on YouTube and Instagram as well.

Now, I am still kind of a small fish. Yes, I am very fortunate to have around 35,000 followers on TikTok. But I’m obviously not a huge mega-creator. I’ve had a few very successful posts get into 6 figures. A decent handful in 5 figures, more than 10,000. But mostly I’m getting in the low thousands lately. I say this not to brag but for comparison’s sake.

During the time it has taken me to get 35,000 TikTok followers, I have managed to amass a minuscule following on YouTube. Just 91 subscribers. My biggest TikTok post got 427,000 views. The same post on YouTube? 8 views (sad trombone). Where I am getting thousands of views on TikTok, I am getting sometimes single digits on YouTube. This is the empirical difference between an American-owned social media company and one that is not controlled or influenced by American power.

So what about Instagram? Same thing.

Same posts even! On Instagram I have 153 followers. My best post on Instagram, 541 views. That same post got almost 120,000 views on TikTok. Once again, this is the difference that TikTok brings. It is not as though TikTok users are that different from Instagram’s. There are of course some demographic differences like age. Which is why I didn’t even bother with Facebook. But in a large enough sample size, the differences in views should not be this stark. It is the exact same material. 

I realize some might think I’m being conspiratorially minded. Some Americans are still more than willing to give our government the benefit of the doubt. The evidence I have presented is highly anecdotal of course. But I bet I’m not the only creator who has this happen.

If you doubt that suppression exists on American social media platforms, ask yourself why you have a hard time believing it. 

Your reaction might be that my case is proof of China’s malevolent intent. That perhaps they support accounts like mine because I stir up shit against the US government. Personally, I think the people behind TikTok are a whole lot more interested in making money than fomenting revolution in the US… an outcome that would be highly unpredictable.  

But something fishy is definitely going on. And that’s why people like me like TikTok and don’t want to hand it over to US interests.

Please follow my Linktree to sign up for my other socials… who knows, maybe they'll start getting some eyeballs? You can also sign up for my Substack while you’re at it. That’s the following I really want to pump up. And then you can get all my posts sent to your email. 

Until then, let’s make them pay.