TikTok’s days might be numbered in the U.S. We can live without the hauls, but what about the benefits of the platform’s deinfluencers?
One of President Donald Trump’s first executive orders was a delay on TikTok’s U.S. ban by 75 days, allowing its Chinese owner, ByteDance, time to find a U.S. buyer. This move aims to address national security concerns while preventing a sudden shutdown of the platform used by millions of Americans.
But if the ban does go into effect, what would the knock-on effect be for the planet? After all, TikTok, which has around 170 million active American monthly users, drives up monumental amounts of waste with its endless trends across categories like food, fashion, beauty, and even books (see: BookTok).
On the surface, an end to viral fashion hauls and beauty bundle reviews might seem like a win for the planet. After all, every second, another truckload of garment waste ends up in landfills, and we know that all those countless plastic skincare bottles and packaging won’t biodegrade for centuries.
But it’s more complicated than that. As we’ve seen time and time again, from YouTube to Facebook to Instagram to TikTok, social media is a beast that cannot be killed. It merely keeps evolving, and for the sake of the planet, our use of it has to keep evolving, too.
Social media has always demanded that we overconsume. According to influencer marketing agency Influencer Matchmaker, “the influencer phenomenon” first started around 2009. It was then, the publication notes, that bloggers and YouTubers were first starting to rack up a big following on social media. In 2010, Instagram took off, giving more people a platform to build their followings and their bank balances with sponsored posts and advertisements.
For the first time, in the early 2010s, people could make serious money through social media. The decade that followed also saw the launch of TikTok, which quickly became one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, and the influencer market exploded. In 2023, according to Statista, the global influencer market was valued at more than $21 billion.
But while the rise of social media influencers gave many women, in particular, a platform for entrepreneurship, it also revolves around consumption. Without people constantly buying products recommended to them by influencers, the industry doesn’t work. According to research by Retail TouchPoints, more than three-quarters of U.S. consumers have bought a product because they saw it on social media, while 65 percent have said that social media led them to buy a product that they hadn’t considered buying before.
But buying products you don’t really need can lead to excessive amounts of waste. In 2018, one study by Barclaycard found that nearly one in ten British shoppers admit to buying clothing just to post it on social media. After that, the item is returned or discarded.
Fast fashion is one of the biggest industries to embrace social media. Most brands have multiple partnerships with influencers on Instagram and TikTok, which they rely on to appeal to promote their clothing to consumers across age groups. But lately, reports show that all of this overconsumption might be coming back to bite them.
Pretty Little Thing works with around 300 social media influencers, for example, but recently, the brand was forced to start banning some customers from excessively returning items to the store. ASOS, which has nearly 15 million followers on Instagram and more than 2 million on TikTok, also recently introduced fees for excessive returns.
Are deinfluencers the answer to social media’s waste problem?
The U.S. isn’t considering banning TikTok for the sake of the planet, but even if it was, the move wouldn’t be effective. After all, in India, for example, where the platform is already banned, Instagram is more popular than ever. A new or existing social media platform will always move to close the gap.
But that doesn’t mean that all is lost. Increasingly, more users are taking to social media to influence people not to buy excessively. Last year, the term “deinfluencer” started to become more common. The idea is simple — these people and accounts encourage people to think more mindfully about how they consume, which, in turn, helps to reduce waste. And it’s getting people’s attention.
One “deinfluencer” account on TikTok, for example, called overcoming_overspending has racked up more than 9 million views on a video that aims to encourage people to save money, rather than spend it. Another video from an account called Young Irish Budgeter that urges people to stay away from “overpriced items” like water bottles for more than $50, expensive sneakers, and luxurious face creams has nearly 230,000 views.
Another recent video from creator Beth Fuller has more than 260,000 views and reads: “It’s normal to not decorate your house for autumn. It’s normal to re-wear clothes from this time last year. It’s normal to not buy new mugs, blankets, cushions, and more year on year for the same season.” She captioned the post: “Your daily dose of deinfluencing.”
Want to become part of the movement? It’s simple: The more you click and watch these videos, the more “deinfluenced” your algorithm will become. The planet, and your bank balance, will thank you.
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