🔴 TikTok Set To Be Banned

Hey, it’s Harry.

Welcome back to the streaming and content journey. This is the first edition of 2025, so Happy New Year to you all!

That said, it may be a concerning start to the year for some of you, so let’s dive in with this special edition based on the TikTok ban.

📰 In Today’s Edition - TikTok Ban Special

• 🚫 The latest news on the TikTok ban

• ⚠️ Steps to take TODAY - before you lose access to TikTok

• 💭 Some personal reflections

• 🗞️ Latest news roundup

🚫 Court Upholds TikTok Ban - Latest News

The US Supreme Court has unanimously upheld a law requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok’s US operations by 19 January 2025 or face a total ban. TikTok’s argument that this violates free speech protections for its 170 million US users was overruled, as the justices found national security concerns took precedence over First Amendment claims.

Incoming President Donald Trump has said he will “make a decision in the not too distant future,” but enforcement of the ban officially falls to him when he takes office. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew thanked Trump for his willingness to work with the platform, yet ByteDance insists it will not sell, suggesting it may shut down the app in the US if no alternative arrangement can be reached.

Many content creators fear losing their primary source of income and social reach, having credited TikTok for transforming their lives. Some built lucrative followings after starting from financial hardship, and they now see the impending ban as the government closing a vital space for self-expression and online community-building.

Source: ChatGPT o1 summary via BBC News.

⚠️ Steps to take TODAY

1. Start by downloading all recent TikTok videos. If you produce your content in a video editor rather than the app, you won’t have to do this. If your content is watermarked then use SnapTik to remove it.

2. Repost content to YouTube Shorts, Facebook Reels and Instagram Reels. The beauty of short-form content is you can reach an audience on multiple platforms. It’s easy to be lazy and forget to do this but all three mentioned platforms can get you millions of views, even Facebook. Consider X and Snapchat too.

3. Make a video telling your TikTok viewers to join your Discord. Alternatively, tell them to subscribe to your email newsletter, Facebook group or X community. Basically a place where you have more control and you can stay in contact with your viewers.

4. Establish a multistreaming strategy. Consider streaming to Twitch, YouTube, Kick and X. Options to multistream include Aitum Multi for OBS or Streamlabs Ultra.

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💭 Some Personal Reflections - How This Affects Me

Firstly, I am British. I will not be losing access to TikTok on January 19th. However, as most of you know, my business is built around teaching people about TikTok LIVE computer streaming. So this is concerning.

I’ve been tracking news of a TikTok ban for many years. It was actually Donald Trump who first tried to ban it four years ago. So since then, I’ve made efforts to diversify. I practised what I preach. I have a Discord server, a private community and this free newsletter as a place to reach my audience. I’ve also multistreamed since 2020, even when Twitch said it wasn’t allowed!

I also expanded beyond just TikTok LIVE tutorials. Two years ago I launched the Harry's Streaming Shortcuts second channel. That channel is not my main focus but I did manage to monetise it within about a year and can pivot there if required.

75% of my audience is from outside the US. However, this does not correlate to 75% of my income. Roughly 50% of my income comes from US creators. Possibly more. Thankfully, I am financially stable. I am grateful to be in a position to take a short-term finance hit just fine.

Finally, I expect Donald Trump to unban TikTok in the US. This means I am going to continue focussing on TikTok LIVE tutorials for the time being. This is of course a gamble but as outlined above I can always pivot later.

How does this affect you? Feel free to hit reply and let me know. I’ll reply to every response!

🎯 Bullet Point News

📽 Beast Games reaches over 50M views on Prime Video and was trending #1 across many countries on the platform. Congrats also to MrBeast on his engagement!

🟣 Valkyrae returns to Twitch and is already the #1 female streamer on the site. Although she did appear to accidentally stream her comeback in 720p 😅

🔴 SE LIVE Multistreaming is out of open beta and publicly available. It’s a free OBS multistreaming plugin.

🟢 Kick announces native integration for both Streamlabs and StreamElements. No more custom RTMP! Don’t forget my affiliate link gives a free trial of Streamlabs Ultra.

🐝 Honey gets sued by Legal Eagle. They are actively scamming content creators. I strongly urge anybody reading this to uninstall Honey if not done already. Watch this video for context.

👋 Thanks for reading!

Harry