Some Alaskans have gotten millions of viewers on TikTok. Here’s how they’re weighing a possible ban.

TikTok influencers in Alaska are growing huge audiences, sharing the state’s unique attributes — and sometimes its pitfalls — with millions of people around the world.

They include an Anchorage resident with some 10 million followers on different platforms. His posts often highlight ice caves and glaciers, with their unearthly light and crystal-clear waters. Another Alaskan netted millions of views on the app showing a school pickup in Fairbanks at temperatures far below zero.

Those content creators say that a ban on TikTok, something the U.S. Supreme Court is weighing, could hurt some Alaska businesses and remove a virtual cultural gathering place that brings Alaskans together.

But over time, those impacts would ease, they say, as TikTok users migrate off of the popular app, and move to other platforms such as YouTube or Instagram and Facebook, both owned by Meta.

Besides nibbling into their profits, they say a TikTok ban in the U.S. could have a ripple effect on areas of the economy they’ve promoted on their social media accounts. That includes local shops and restaurants that get a burst in business when videos go viral and tourists travel to the state.

“It’s given us the opportunity to show the world that Alaska is a very cool place,” said Danika Olson, named the state’s best 2024 influencer by Alaska Business magazine for her Girl in Alaska accounts.

People on her TikTok account and other platforms sometimes comment that Alaska seems far away and remote.

“I’m like, ‘It’s just a short flight away from where you live,’ " she said.

One influencer sees ‘very profound’ benefits

The video-sharing platform with Chinese ownership, and a young fanbase, has raised security concerns in the U.S. about potential stolen user data and public manipulation by China. Some states have sued the company over how addictive it is for young users, among other negative impacts, alleging the company isn’t doing enough to limit its use.

Congress this year passed the ban and President Joe Biden signed it into law. It would prevent U.S. companies such as Google and Apple from providing access to the app or updating it. That would cause TikTok to be phased out in the U.S.

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The ban could begin on Jan. 19. But that date might be delayed as the Supreme Court reviews a lower court’s decision allowing the law.

President-elect Donald Trump, who supported plans to ban TikTok in his first term, has said he might keep the app “around for a little while” after his campaign used it to win votes. One option for Trump could be asking lawmakers to repeal or amend the ban. On Friday, Trump filed a “friend of the court” brief with the Supreme Court asking it to pause the TikTok ban so his administration can “pursue a political resolution” of the matter. Trump does not take a position in the filing.

Some Alaska content creators vouch for the app’s positive impacts. They think a ban is unlikely.

Derrick Moore, who has focused on addiction recovery and his East Anchorage upbringing on his TikTok account, Hardawaylearning, said he thinks Trump won’t support a ban.

“The benefits of TikTok are very profound, so I think people will speak up against it,” he said.

“It provides organic marketing for small businesses that don’t necessarily have money for other ads,” he said.

And there are social benefits, he said. “When I give advice for people struggling with addiction, at least once a week I get a message from someone watching my TikToks who was inspired to go to treatment and get clean.”

Moore said he gets most of his social media income from TikTok, where he has nearly 140,000 followers.

Moore said the demise of the app would cost him some income.

Payments per-view and advertising for small businesses help him earn enough to take much of the year off from the better-paying construction work he does in summer, he said.

He spends a handful of hours each day creating long-form TikTok videos. If he gets 200,000 views, they can be worth $250 each, just for the views. If he gets more views, he’s paid more. One video of a tour in Mountain View generated close to 4 million views, after his followers wanted to know if Alaska has a “‘hood,” he said.

In winter, he can focus on his account and mentoring people on addiction recovery, as well as doing charitable acts like toy drives, he said.

He also uses TikTok to promote his book, “7 Steps from Addiction to Sobriety,” covering his recovery from heroine and methamphetamine abuse.

If the ban goes into effect, he and other social media influencers in Alaska said they’d boost their presence on other platforms.

“I’d adjust my content and focus on YouTube, which happens to be the highest monetized, so it pays the most,” he said.

Where else to get a ‘dopamine fix’?

John Derting, whose eponymous TikTok account has 4.6 million followers, said he’s positioned himself in recent years for a potential ban by building up his accounts on Instagram and Facebook.

He’s gotten about 10 million internet followers overall, making him among the state’s top-followed content creators.

Derting said he grew up living a sheltered life on a farm in Kentucky. He didn’t have a cellphone until after he ran away from home at age 17. After high school, he joined the U.S. Air Force, where he spent six years. The military brought him to Alaska, and it’s where he started posting on social media.

His videos focus on the state’s outdoor beauty. His trips to ice caves and glaciers have generated some of the most attention. He grossed over 1 billion views on TikTok in 2023, he said.

“I wanted to share a version of Alaska that you don’t see every day,” he said. “It’s so hard to be unique out there.”

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Thanks to his numbers, he’s advertised for large brands on his accounts, including Mammut, the outdoor gear maker, and Polaris, the powersports company.

Posting on social media has been his only job since he left the military in 2022. It brings him “substantially” more than $100,000 annually, he said.

However, he thinks a TikTok ban will have little impact for him.

“If anything, it’s probably gonna help me,” he said. “Because when people go to get their dopamine fix of mindlessly scrolling on social media, as a lot of people do, I figure there will be less people using TikTok so it’s gonna push more people towards Instagram and Facebook.”

Instagram and Facebook provide significantly more per-view revenue for his videos, he said.

But he doesn’t want to see more concentration in one company, he said.

“We need a (direct) competitor to Meta and there is none if we get rid of TikTok,” he said.

A short-term loss for Alaska economy?

Danika Olson said TikTok and platforms have helped draw visitors to small businesses in the state.

One marketing video she made of a girls weekend at the WestWind Cabins in Homer got 11 million views on Instagram, she said.

She made a similar video on TikTok.

Losing the TikTok app would provide one less avenue for businesses to get noticed, potentially hurting the state’s economy, she said.

But Olson said a TikTok ban might help her, pushing followers to Instagram, where she earns most of her money.

She makes more than $100,000 annually from her social media accounts and related businesses such as travel planning and an apparel company called The Alaska Brand, she said.

She posts videos about unusual Alaska experiences, like riding Jet Skis with friends to a glacier or taking a helicopter to a remote dog-sledding site.

It’s also possible a TikTok ban could hurt her social media income.

She said the site’s shutdown, if that actually happens, could mean more competition from other creators on Instagram or elsewhere, slicing away at her views.

But the biggest advantage she and her peers have in Alaska won’t go away, she said — it’s a unique state with experiences that attract viewers from around the world.

The ‘Alaska-centric audience’

Lizzie Hartman, a chef from Fairbanks known as alaska_lizzie on TikTok, said she relies on the app more than other sites. Hartman has more than 50,000 followers.

She posts about everyday life in Fairbanks — the northern lights, unique Costco items like dipnets, and the cold, of course.

In one video with 14.5 million views, she picks up her kids from school when it’s 30 below. Cold-air steam billows in the door like the outside is a deep freezer.

Hartman won’t lose a lot financially if TikTok shuts down, she said.

But there will be a cultural loss.

She has a close-knit “Alaska-centric audience” that seems to skew older than other TikTok accounts, with many followers in their 30s and beyond, she said.

She gets “incredible engagement” from those users. They comment on posts or send direct messages, she said.

“To see it go away, it will be a really big hole in our community,” she said.

Hartman uses TikTok to organize bus tours to visit Fairbanks shops and businesses, she said. Other social media influencers from the region sometimes ride along, using their own accounts to feature the businesses.

But mainly, the app is socially important to her and others, she said. It’s expanded her circle of friends and fostered a sense of community.

This year, she has posted emotional clips about the death of her husband, Blaine Hartman. He died this summer in a motorcycle accident.

An outpouring of support from Alaskans has been therapeutic, she said.

She says in one post that comments from grieving viewers who are “walking the same journey as me” are helping her heal.

“It gives me a lot of hope, and it gives me a lot of comfort, and it makes me feel less alone, even though I don’t know you,” she says.

“It’s a beautiful community of people who understand, and I really appreciate that,” she says.