Within the last few days before TikTok was banned for 14 hours, popular influencers decided to be completely transparent with their viewers. For some, what they exposed about themselves was very minimal, but others revealed insights about themselves or others stirred up many questions from the TikTok audience.
These creators had the mindset that since TikTok was going to be banned, they might as well be honest with their audience. The odd thing about this is that these people have large followings on other social media platforms apart from TikTok, meaning their popularity and fame would not have disappeared over the ban. They might have quickly regretted their decision to share after TikTok returned in under 24 hours.
Circa 2020, Charli D’Amelio was the biggest content creator on TikTok. During that time, fans thought that they had seen evidence of her vaping, but the accusations were quickly shut down by explaining that she had an “anxiety pen,” which is different from a vape. Participating in this trend, D’Amelio confessed that she did actually vape, and put an end to the questioning from prior years.
Another influencer that stirred the pot with their confession was Tram Tran. She is known under the profile of “babydumplingg” and posts mukbang videos of her eating an enormous amount of food in one sitting. In her post about the trend, she said, “Since TikTok is getting banned, there’s 1 more secret I have to share with you; I don’t eat all the food.”
Tran exposing that she does not actually eat all the food she originally was believed to became very controversial because that was the sole reason for her fame and rise on the app. After TikTok’s return, she posted a video saying that her confession was just a joke and that she lied about not eating all of the food in an effort to save her reputation.
With this trend beginning when TikTok was believed to be banned indefinitely, the TikTok audience all came together to enjoy the last moments and appreciate the creators that formed the popularity of the app. EHS Freshman Kaiya Corban said, “I think this trend definitely brought some drama to the platform and the influencers individually.” The influencers knew the drama would draw attention, which is most likely why they shared vulnerable things about themselves to get an uprise of income before the app disappeared. “I thought it was really funny seeing all the influencer drama ‘truths’ come out that fans had defended their lives with,” said Corban.
Although each influencer is now facing their own kind of backlash from the secrets they shared, ultimately it was all for publicity and they have the opportunity to continue to use their TikTok platform with the return of the app.