The TikTok ban: A lesson in safeguarding for any business owner on socials
You may have heard (multiple times now)…
Due to conversations around national security, the US government have extended the deadline for a fourth time to 16th December 2025, before potentially banning TikTok there. [1] This is due to TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, failing to sell its US operations to an American buyer.
You may remember hearing the same news around the second deadline extension back in January 2025, where US-based users experienced a temporary blackout and couldn’t use it.
In defiance, this spurred on a lot of self-proclaimed ‘TikTok refugees’ joining Chinese social media app, RedNote with an impressive nearly 3 million new users in just one day. [2]
In this blog post I am discussing why you should care (regardless of where you are in the world), and what YOU can do to protect your business from potential wildcards like this.
If you’re in the UK, why do you care about this?
Although it isn’t happening in the UK, it gives a stark reminder that social media is a rented space. At any time, you are vulnerable to losing your content, followers or in this case, the whole platform from your marketing efforts.
Unfortunately, it’s not only bans that put us at risk.
You can also lose or have your social platforms affected by:
· Technical difficulties/outages
Hands up if you have ever struggled for ages wondering why you can’t respond to comments, publish your post, refresh your feed… only to discover that it wasn’t YOU, the platform was down. A day (or more) of business is now sat in a backlog waiting for you to catch up on.
· Hackers and attacks
In the past two years, takeovers of social media accounts have increased by 78%. [3] We use best efforts like strong passwords and Two-Factor Authentication (TFA), but we are always at risk for hackers. Your work could be erased and/or business could be negatively impacted by a malevolent actor impersonating you.
· Account restrictions
Not only hackers to be mindful of, but restrictions can be placed on your social media profiles at any time for more innocent mistakes.
When I first launched my Instagram account for MFD Marketing, I had my privileges restricted for the first 30 days because I had posted brand watermarks on my content. I was unaware at the time that this wasn’t acceptable for new and establishing accounts.
· Changes to features/functionality/algorithms
When you are using someone else’s platform, you are at the mercy of any changes that the creator/s wish to make. These could be features you love, the way that their algorithm decides how it selects and prioritises content to show, or even just how the User Interface (UI) looks and feels.
Story time (again)…
When I first started up MFD I used to operate my eCommerce activity through a third-party platform. I had chosen it because it gave ease of use, and I could manage email and DM integrations all in one place.
However, one day I noticed that one of the key features I’d loved and chosen (requesting and storing product reviews), had been removed from the platform. No notification, no warning.
When I investigated and asked the customer service team, their response was to manually request and publish my own product reviews away from the platform. I felt that this defeated the point of the platform and its benefits.
So, what can I do to protect myself and my business?
The short answer is to build assets that YOU completely own.
Examples of these are:
· An email list
With 92% of online adults projected to use email by the end of 2025, [4] having an email list is no longer a choice but a necessity in my opinion.
It can take time and incentives (such as freebies, discounts, exclusive tips) to grow your list of email subscribers, but once you have it you own and can nurture your community.
· A website
Did you know that 83% of small business owners have a website? [5] This is only increasing, due to the range of benefits such as sales, brand awareness and online reach.
If you don’t have a website for your business, you’re missing out on a golden opportunity to control your business operations in one place (think booking appointments, online sales, showcasing a portfolio and much more).
No getting caught out by unannounced functionality changes, like me!
· Brand asset/content library
Finally, if the worst were to happen and you lost your social media profile overnight, would you be able to quickly recover the lost content?
If the answer is no, then I highly recommend creating a library of your images, videos, templates, documents, everything. But strategically, keep them stored elsewhere privately (such as a Google Drive), so that you know you can recover them when you need to.
Whilst it takes time and patience to build and grow these assets, it is a long-term secure investment that your business will thank you for.
Summary
I hope you’ve found this useful in learning why and how to build business assets that are 100% yours. It’s time to get your business protected so that you can sleep soundly knowing that your results won’t be affected due to a rollercoaster of decisions from someone else.
If you would like to have a chat about how I can help you build out a website and/or an engaged email list, click below to arrange a FREE 30 minute discovery call with me.