From carefully curated Instagram pages to fun, informative and educative 60 second videos on TikTok, the influence of social media — whether positive or negative — is undeniable.
Statistics from DataReportal estimated Kenya of having 13 million social media users as of January 2024, representing 24 percent of Kenya’s total population.
This surge in digital activity has given rise to a wave of new online creators who are shaping trends, driving conversations, and turning their online presence into a livelihood.
For these creators and many businesses, the stakes are high, their audience, income, and influence all depend on platforms that could change or disappear at any moment.
On the eve of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, TikTok suspended its services in the United States over national security concerns of the platform sharing US user data with the Chinese government, claims TikTok has consistently denied.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, passed late last year, had given TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, until January 19 to divest from the platform.
The outage, which lasted less than 24 hours, had significant financial implications, not just for TikTok as a platform but also for content creators who rely on it for income. The Washington Post reported that TikTok claimed to have contributed $24.2 billion to the US economy in 2024.
Meanwhile, closer home, Kenyan authorities announced new regulations requiring social media companies to establish a physical presence in the country to continue operating.
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Interior and National Coordination Raymond Omollo said this was aimed at curbing increasing misuse of social media for harassment, hate speech, and incitement to violence.
These regulations could, therefore, have a significant impact and if platforms fail to comply, about 30 percent of the country’s population could lose access to these digital spaces. This raises important questions about the potential consequences in case social media companies fail to comply with new regulations.
Would they face fines, bans, or even complete shutdowns? Additionally, how would such actions impact freedom of speech and the digital economy, particularly revenue streams that depend on these platforms?
In 2024, Kenya and Tanzania experienced the financial impact of internet restrictions, with an estimated Sh9.7 billion lost due to censorship. Similar disruptions could have major economic consequences, particularly for a platform that serves as the primary source of daily news for over 29 percent of Kenyans.
Despite these regulatory challenges, TikTok continues to be a dominant force in Kenya’s digital space. Content creators, blending culture and creativity, use the platform for financial literacy education, business mentorship, music challenges, mental health awareness, and entertainment.
With a low monetisation threshold of only 10,000 followers and 100,000 video views in the past 30 days, TikTok has opened up new career opportunities for young Kenyans. Influencers shape trends, drive conversations, and share news-related content.
However, a critical reality remains: Social media influencers, agencies, and businesses do not own their audiences but rely on third-party platforms to reach their target, making them vulnerable to sudden disruptions. If a platform shuts down or alters its algorithm, they risk losing their audience overnight, highlighting the need for digital independence.
Jeffrey Rohrs, in Audiences: Marketing in the Age of Subscribers, Fans, and Followers, highlights the importance of developing proprietary audiences, a concept aligned with the Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned (PESO) model. He advises businesses and influencers to build direct access to their audiences beyond social media platforms.
Shama Hyder Kabani, founder of Zen Marketing, champions the Attract-Convert-Transform (ACT) model as a strategy to retain audiences.
She suggests using websites, email lists, and exclusive content to create direct relationships with followers.
For example, offering a free resource, discount, or exclusive content in exchange for an email address ensures a sustainable connection—even if social media platforms become unavailable. If popular social media platforms shut down, only creators who have secured their audience’s contact information will maintain access to them.
To mitigate these risks, digital entrepreneurs should future proof their digital influence by diversifying their platforms to engage audiences across multiple sites, leverage on good old traditional media as they still serve as trusted sources and build direct audience relationships by using email marketing, personal websites, and subscription-based models.
The Kenyan digital space is evolving. As regulatory changes and platform shutdowns loom, content creators and businesses must ask themselves, how can we safeguard our audience and sustain our influence in a rapidly shifting digital landscape?
The writer is an Assistant Professor at Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications
