Hello friends! I recently wrote a post called "The Dark Side of Influencer Culture" - make sure you check that one out before reading this post (although this post will still make sense without it). And, I had been working on that post for a long time. I'm still not sure if I'm going to make it into a YouTube video or not (it would be quite long probably). Anyway, around the time of posting, there was the TikTok ban where the app went dark in the USA and it affected some other people for about 12-14 hours. Then, on the 20th of January, the current president *ugh* signed an executive order not to take any action re the ban for 75 days. For full coverage of the TikTok ban, you can check out "this site." TikTok is currently up and running for now. I don't think it's available on the app stores in the USA though.
Also, isn't it ironic how Trump was the one who wanted to ban TikTok in the first place back in 2020? And you gotta see through the issue of data concerns BECAUSE IF TRUMP had an issue with that HE WOULDN'T HAVE MARK ZUCKERBERG on his damn team in 2025. Literally, has the world just forgotten about Cambridge Analytica? IT'S ABOUT CENSORSHIP! Agh, TikTok is super easy to go viral on (not for me LOL, idk what I'm doing on TikTok) so information and misinformation spread rapidly - this whole ban is about control of information and censorship. We are literally living in a real-life Fahrenheit 451 or 1984. And probably, an issue of racism - why is it okay for the Zuckerberg to do it but not TikTok's CEO? Have we not thought about whether TikTok just has a better algorithm? Okay, okay, yes I've gone down a bit of a dystopian tangent and we'll get to why influencers have suddenly exposed themselves following the TikTok ban shortly, I just had to get that rant out there.
Quick Sidenote - TikTok went dark because it didn't want to sell the application to the USA.
PIN IT
Why Are Influencers Exposing Themselves?
Influencers "exposing" themselves is nothing new. We've seen it a lot before, but we haven't seen it this extreme in my opinion. Following the announcement of the TikTok ban, many creators took to TikTok to "expose" themselves i.e., they explained that a lot of what we were seeing was fake (using a Peter Griffin sound), and don't get me wrong, we know a lot of things are fake and curated but when your whole niche is lifestyle vlogger and you're suddenly like my whole life is a lie, I only did that for the cameras, like what? And it's worse if your audience is mainly younger, a lot of younger people don't have the skills to critically think and analyse and think that that may have been fake. Sure, I get that a lot of vloggers are acting - but what?? I really suggest watching the below YT video from Swell Entertainment (Amanda) where she discusses examples of this TikTok trend and inspired me to write this post:
Other examples include coffee influencers who never drink the coffee they make, fitness influencers who don't actually do the workouts they share and get work done to look like the way they do (like I kinda get that one but also I don't get it), makeup influencers who use/don't use as much product as they say, people who do Mukbangs not eating all the food in their videos, and so on. Now, yes, I did write my masters thesis on Social Media so I know a lot of it is heavily curated and we see what they want us to see. But, this is just another level. And I personally feel like the less authenticity, the less people are going to trust you (Harff & Schmuck, 2024).
So why did the TikTok ban suddenly allow for influencers to do this trend? I would say that this ban was a catalyst event if you want to look at it sociologically for the trend. The trend did start off lightheartedly enough, but then it turned into something SOOO much bigger. Like, did these influencers not think there would be repercussions on other platforms? Or that they wouldn't lose their followers?
The Factors
The factors that led to influencers exposing themselves like this are as follows:
The belief in the absence of consequences - As the possibility of the platform vanishing looms, influencers might experience reduced pressure to uphold their meticulously crafted online personas, resulting in more open revelations.
A "final opportunity" to connect - Some creators may view this as their last chance to be entirely transparent with their audience before the platform disappears.
Drive Engagement/Rage Bait - Influencers may believe that doing something like this will drive up engagement on their posts or people might look at it as rage bait.
For the Views - Basically the same as the above factor.
Self-sabotage - I think this one is an important factor to consider because fear of change can correlate to someone partaking in self-sabotage behaviours (and losing your favourite platform, following a misogynistic criminal being in power, I don't blame them).
Riding a trend - Just following what other creators are doing like sheep (yes, I hate calling people sheep, but when you do this trend without thinking about the consequences, you are sheep - dw I don't think this about other trends, just this one in particular).
I have soooo many questions. A lot of these influencers are popular on other platforms like Instagram and YouTube, why are you suddenly surprised your audience is dwindling and no one trusts you anymore? Also, like did you see how many more alternative platforms popped up? For example, rednote and lemon8. They're constantly creating new social media apps all the time - it's like if you're a teenager and something gets banned at school (like social media, phones, or even a book), those teenagers are STILL going to find a way to get that thing. And yes, I know it's absolutely awful for those small businesses on TikTok who make most of their living there. But we have to remember as content creators, it's important to diversify income streams. I'm ranting again I know, I just can't understand the stupidity behind what some of these creators have admitted. Anyway, those exposed lies are on the internet forever - even if you deleted what you posted, someone could have downloaded it or screen-recorded it and it might come back to haunt you in the future.
I also think we have to think about maybe they just thought because our attention spans are sooo small now, maybe we'd all just forget about it and move on BUT no, it's way too much of a big deal. My bet is that these exposed lies are going to come back and haunt people in the future.
Also, why are we so shocked at this trend? I mean, I am shocked that people are so ignorant, they would literally just throw away their careers, but one study highlighted how sponsored content can impact audiences views on influencers' authenticity. For example, influencers who primed their sponsored content in a positive way were more likely to be perceived as more authentic and vice versa (Luoma-Aho et al., 2019).
Lessons we should take away from this are that we shouldn't trust everything we see on the internet, I mean we still have to trust some things but just to be more mindful, young people's minds are impressionable and influencers should be careful in how they are manipulating their audiences, parasocial relationships don't go both ways, and that if something is going to get banned, something will come up and replace it just as creative destruction occurs.
I also just learned that the app Duolingo revealved that the person in the Duolingo suit was Mark Pavic - a marketing manager for the app. BUT, I'm pretty sure they were just taking the mickey out of everyone complicit in this trend and thought this would be funny. Duolingo has the best social media marketing IMO. They also made a joke about the owl passing away this morning and I think it's a joke because it's a man in a suit so surely they're just trolling the whole world for views.
On that note, I wanted to leave you with one last words of wisdom which may just be misremembered Green Day lyrics (although I always thought this was a profound quote) - "Question everything or shut up and become a victim of society" with the Green Day lyric replacing society with authority.
Thanks so much for reading this post! Let me know in the comments below if you'd like to see more posts like this one on asheycakes.
Much love,
Ash x
Readings/References
Ekinci, Y., Dam, S., & Buckle, G. (2025). The Dark Side of Social Media Influencers: A Research Agenda for Analysing Deceptive Practices and Regulatory Challenges. Psychology & Marketing.
Harff, D., & Schmuck, D. (2024). Is authenticity key? Mobilization by social media influencers versus celebrities and young people's political participation. Psychology & Marketing, 41(11), 2757-2771.
Luoma-Aho, V., Pirttimäki, T., Maity, D., Munnukka, J., & Reinikainen, H. (2021). Primed authenticity: How priming impacts authenticity perception of social media influencers. In Social Media Influencers in Strategic Communication (pp. 119-132). Routledge.
Roberts, A. J. (2020). False influencing. Geo. LJ, 109, 81.
Tidgewell, K. (2024). Literal Falsity and the Role of Social Media Influencers. San Diego L. Rev., 61, 725.
https://www.queensjournal.ca/tiktok-ban-exposes-wide-spread-social-media-dependence/
https://www.hercampus.com/school/ohio-u/influencers-expose-themselves-for-tiktok-trend/
https://www.boredpanda.com/tiktok-influencers-confess-theyve-been-lying-about-their-content/
https://betches.com/influencers-sharing-secrets-before-tiktok-ban/
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Such an interesting post! As a blogger, I do share a lot online, but I’m still careful about what I share. I don’t share too much, because about my home life and my family because I’m already sharing quite a few things about myself, like my Turner syndrome and my mental illnesses. There are something’s I rather keep private. I think it’s important to watch what we share online. Like you said, what goes i]in the internet is out there forever, and it can be embarrassing or get people into trouble. I’ve heard too many stories about people getting into trouble or even killed because of their activity online. I remember when MySpace first came out. A lot of teens…
This is such an insightful take on the TikTok ban and influencer culture! It’s wild how many creators are suddenly exposing their curated personas—definitely makes you question everything we see online.