ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The TikTok ban felt like more of a quick timeout to users across the country after the company took down the app in the United States for less than a full day over the weekend.

But for those who rely on the app for their income, the brief shutdown showed just how quickly the social media platform can be taken away.

What You Need To Know

  • The popular social media app, TikTok, went dark for roughly 12 hours over the weekend after months of talking to ban the platform

  • Chaz Bruce started his content creation career on TikTok, when it was still called 'Musically' as a way to connect with his students, at the time

  • Now, he has more than six million followers on the app, and more than 120 million likes on his page

  • If the app gets banned in the future, he says he'll continue to create content on his other platforms, in addition to continuing to teach other users to create their own content

“I remember when they first started talking about the ban and everyone was like, it's ridiculous to say that the government can come in and shut down this application that's on my phone for a reason that all of the U.S. social media companies are doing, and they're all doing the same thing so far," Chaz Bruce said. "At first I was like, what are you talking about?”

He joined TikTok while the popular app was still named “Musically.” The music teacher at the time saw the app as an opportunity to connect with his students. He’s since become a full-time content creator and uses multiple different social media platforms to produce content.

“One of my biggest [followings are] on TikTok. But my content is posted and spread and shared throughout many different platforms, from Facebook to Instagram to even Snapchat, and everywhere," he said. "My content is on those different platforms. I can be inspired from a creator. I can be inspired from my family. I can be inspired from the fact that it's snowed today. So, I draw inspiration from a lot of different things.”

However, TikTok was the first platform that Bruce was able to make money from. He has more than 6 million followers, and more than 120 million likes on his TikTok page.

“Once they mentioned banning it the first time, I was like, ‘OK, what if that actually happened? What would I do? And I looked around, I was like, you know what? I’m going to migrate all of my followers to my other platforms,” Bruce recalled.

It was a strategy he’s found successful. He’s grown his Facebook platform to reach more than 1 million people, for example. But he shares the same feeling as many TikTok users.

“The one thing that we're going to do is we're going to find ways to create, period," he said. "Where you take away this or take away that, we're going to find a way to create. And one thing that the TikTokers are saying is: I don't care if you are trying to take this away. That's not going to make me want to go back to the other apps that they feel like the community isn't there. It's a deeper connection to my audience than in any other platform, you know, for them. And they care.”

Although the thought of new up-and-coming apps can be exciting, he says his community can’t be replaced, and neither can the future of content creation.

“Those things are really important to students right now because the career of a content creator is a real career right now," he said. "Like, and it's huge. Some of the most paid people right now are these streamers and content creators making more than these teachers and more than these cops and people with these positions that a lot of people, you know, strive to be. Remember when everybody used to access, well, what do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be this. I want to be a teacher. I want to be a policeman. It's like, that's cool. Now you have students that I want to be a content creator.”

If the app were to be banned, he’s planning on returning to his original passion: teaching, in addition to his multi-platform content creation.

“I would go back to what I was doing in the beginning, which was teaching," he said. "I taught music for years before I was a full-time concert creator. So that's what I did have a passion for. And I do have a passion for it. That’s why teachers always teach. And that’s why now I’m teaching how to create content. So I teach creators how to create content. Everybody what everyone needs to know how to create content. At this point, it doesn't matter if you have a personal brand, a business, it doesn't matter. What you have to do is what's detrimental to your business and your brand is to understand how to create content.”

“The one thing about the TikTok community is we're going to find a way, right? We'll find a way to either figure out what's happening or combat it,” he admitted.

Bruce’s brand is "ChazBruce" or "ChazBruce0" across all platforms. He has no intentions of leaving other social media outlets, unless he’s forced to.

“It’s just ridiculous that this was even a thing that we had to worry about for a while," he said. "And then it actually came to fruition where it was for a whole 12 hours or so. Y'all really shut it down? And it was just like I knew in my heart that this is ridiculous. When there's way too many people in America making a living off of this app. There's way too much businesses building and thriving from this app."