Social media users and content creators should be able to ditch and switch platforms without losing their followers, renegade economist Yanis Varoufakis argues.
The threat of the TikTok ban in the United States is highlighting the power social platforms hold and the far-reaching effects a shutdown could have.
Mr Varoufakis — the former Greek finance minister, now a prominent economist and author — is calling for regulators to enforce “interoperability”.
This would see people’s followers attached to social accounts, not particular platforms.
Yanis Varoufakis is a Greek economist and author, who argues the owners of big tech have become the world’s feudal overlords. (Supplied)
“That would reduce the switching costs and would deal a major blow at the exorbitant power of platform owners,” Mr Varoufakis tells ABC News.
TikTok, Meta, X, Microsoft, and Google were all approached for comment, with a spokesperson for Meta defending the industry.
“There is fierce competition across social media from the likes of TikTok, X, YouTube, Reddit, SnapChat, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and many others,” they argue.
“Consumers have lots of choice and can and do move freely between these free apps.”
Yet, as the TikTok ban plays out, some creators are hedging their bets.
Sydney TikTok influencer and self-professed “salad lady” Fidan Shevket started cross-posting her content to YouTube this year, in an effort to keep connected with US followers if they lose access to the Chinese-owned platform.
Fidan Shevket is a family lawyer who has developed an online audience on social media platform, TikTok. (ABC News: John Gunn)
“It’s really sad for the Americans. They have been following me and engaging with my content, and they have said they’re going to miss me.
“So I’ve been uploading [my content] for them to YouTube.
“I’m still trying to figure it out. I don’t really know what I’m doing,” she laughs.
Ms Shevket has already built up 14,000 followers on YouTube.
But that number is still dwarfed by the almost 1,000,000 followers she has on TikTok. She estimates about half of those are based in the US.
While TikTok has so far only gone dark for 12 hours in the US as its parent company Bytedance is being pushed towards a joint venture arrangement there to avoid a total shutdown, Ms Shevket thinks she has already lost some US followers on her TikTok.
“I don’t want to support propaganda so I deleted TikTok,” one comment on her YouTube says.
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TikTok’s ‘Godfather soap opera’
The US TikTok ban has been talked about there for years, with concerns about its use in the States centring around the connection to China.
“This has been a soap opera when it comes to TikTok,” Wedbush Securities managing director Dan Ives tells ABC News.
“It started off as [US President Donald] Trump was for the ban and now against the ban. Now, clearly things have changed dramatically.
“TikTok is really a chip on the poker table that’s playing out between the US and China.”
Dan Ives is a Wall Street-based technology stocks analyst. (Supplied )
The latest speculation is that TikTok could be forced into a joint venture in the US to continue operating, with Mr Trump commenting last month that its owner Bytedance can have “an asset that has no value or a trillion dollar value”.
“This is almost like a Godfather Don Corleone situation,” Mr Ives says.
“Either take the deal or else. Because the reality is, is that if they don’t take the deal, they get shot.”
Those said to be interested in buying the social media app’s US operations include billionaire Frank McCourt and celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary.
Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok, according to Mr Trump, who says he would also be open to Oracle chairman Larry Ellison or X and Tesla owner Elon Musk snapping it up.
Google’s Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk of Tesla look on during Donald Trump’s inauguration. (AP: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Pool)
Mr Musk — the world’s richest man — is now one of the US president’s biggest allies, with the increasingly divisive businessman making headlines at the president’s inauguration.
Meta’s owner Mark Zuckerberg was also in a prime seat at that ceremony, days after announcing an end to the social media giant’s fact-checking partnership in the US.
“We’re right now in this Game of Thrones battle when it comes to social media,” Mr Ives tells ABC News.
“If you look at Zuckerberg with Facebook and Instagram, then there is Snapchat, they’re trying to gain share. I’d say the same thing for Musk with X.
“Clearly, TikTok has been the most disruptive.”
Even Google — which owns YouTube — could benefit from a deal or no deal for TikTok, with influencers like Fidan having given it more traffic in the last few weeks with all the uncertainty.
Fidan hopes that TikTok is saved. She is watching the geopolitics of the saga closely, and is concerned the US ban is being pushed due to the interests of other companies.
“It might be that TikTok becomes MySpace? But otherwise, no, I think it’s here to stay,” Fidan says.
“I’m kind of, poo poo Meta, poo poo Zuckerberg.”
Others say the situation highlights how no content creator should rely on one single app for exposure.
“This whole incident has shown us how everyone needs to be completely diversified and be everywhere,” social media influencer manager Taylor Reilly tells ABC News.
Mr Reilly manages a dozen content creators who earn full-time salaries from their content through sponsorship deals and some apps’ so-called creator funds — he takes a cut of those earnings.
Taylor Reilly talking to one of his content creators on Facetime. (ABC News: Chris Taylor)
Mr Reilly estimates his clients will lose 10 per cent of their earnings if TikTok’s US ban goes ahead. Although, he doesn’t think it will.
“I’m not concerned about anything being volatile. I think this is just the nature of business,” he says.
Wedbush’s Mr Ives also doesn’t believe the TikTok ban will go ahead.
“We believe a 95 per cent chance a [TikTok] deal does happen in some form over the next 75 days,” he says.
No such thing as a ‘good techno-feudal lord’
While the battle could end well for savvy tech investors — as the so-called Magnificent Seven continue to soar in value — critics say rumblings about bans and divestment are just political distraction.
“There is no stopping a form of economic activity which concentrates so much direct power in the hands of so few people, over our thoughts, our minds,” Yanis Varoufakis tells ABC News.
“I don’t see TikTok as a threat, not more so than Meta.
“Have we forgotten the scandalous behaviour of Zuckerberg’s Facebook with Cambridge Analytica?
“Do not fall into the trap of thinking that there is a good techno-feudal lord.”
In 2023, Mr Varoufakis published a book theorising that tech companies, from social media apps to Jeff Bezos’ marketplace Amazon, are running a rent-based feudal system.
Two years later, he thinks his theory is ringing true.
Under the theory of technofeudalism put forward by Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis, we farm wealth for billionaires such as Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg for access to the cloud.
“We’ve always known that behind the throne there was the dollar,” he said.
“What is new, is that these folks we saw at the [Trump] inauguration, have masses of cloud capital that directly modify our behaviour.
“What they want from a president — and they don’t give a damn whether it’s Trump or anyone else — is to get the federal government off their back so as to be able to use that power without any kind of impediment.”
Analyst Dan Ives thinks there is a risk of further power concentration.
“This is a situation where tech is going to get stronger under Trump, from social media to the AI revolution, and clearly US-China negotiations are going to be front and centre.
“I think that’s some of the danger here, in terms of, what we’ll call oligarchs.
“But that’s something that really needs to play out over the coming years and under the Trump administration.”
Others like social media influencer manager Taylor Reilly isn’t as fazed by talk of social media bros and the power they have accumulated.
“Those guys have brought so much to the world,” he says.
