But largely, TikTok is a place Black creators found where they could thrive and reach new audiences and customers for their growing businesses. It wasn't that the content wasn't good, Ford said, it was that Instagram "just wasn't a place for Black creators, minority creators, to excel." Some Black creators suspected their Black Lives Matter content was suppressed in 2020 after George Floyd's death ignited a wave of protests. AdvertisementBlack TikTokers have also expressed an "undertone of anti-Blackness" in the platform's algorithm, where white creators benefited from the trends started by Black creators. AdvertisementThis is disheartening, Black creators told BI, because so many top trends and ideas come from their community.

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Persons: —, Joe Biden, TikTok, Tenyse Williams, It's, Funmi Ford, Ford, Nya, I've, Étienne, Keith Lee, entrepreneurialism, Kahlil Dumas, Dumas, George Floyd's, Jalaiah Harmon, Black TikTokers, Williams, Imani Bashir, Bashir, We're, isn't Organizations: Service, Senate, Business, Consulting, University of Central, Columbia University, George Washington University, Pew Research Center, An, Free, Black, New York Times, Forbes, YouTube, BI Locations: University of Central Florida, Instagram, An Oxford, Atlanta