The TikTok Switcheroo
Freelance busters who spent years attacking independent content creators now want us to believe they are our greatest protectors.
Social-media addicts all across the nation crawled into the fetal position over the weekend as TikTok went dark, leaving them jonesing for a fix. The algorithm was no longer suspect; it was flat-out gone, along with the business platform where a lot of independent content creators earn a living.
Into this breach of missing cat videos and dance-offs sprang several would-be leaders of the Democratic Party. They were practically wearing tights and capes as they shouted from the mountaintops that they would not let freelance influencer careers go gently into the good night.
One such self-anointed avenger was Ro Khanna, a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives who serves as vice chairman of the Progressive Caucus:
Another was Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who was a short-lister for Kamala Harris’ running mate in the recent election, and who is a frontrunner to be the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee in 2028:
These guys would have us all believe that they are true defenders of independent contractors. After all, that’s what TikTok content creators and influencers generally are. They’re not employees of TikTok. They’re independent contractors who use TikTok as a platform to distribute the content they create—often in collaboration with other independent contractors.
In that sense, these content creators are just like the 66% of us more traditional writers and authors who are self-employed and making content for all kinds of other distribution channels, print and digital alike.
All of which is why there’s just one small problem with the claim that politicians like Congressman Khanna and Governor Shapiro are currently making, about being protectors of content creators.
They have both spent the past few years attacking everyone’s freedom to earn a living as we do.
AB5, the PRO Act and the USDOL
Let’s start with Congressman Khanna, a vocal supporter of the federal PRO Act. That bill—formally known as the Protecting the Right to Organize Act— includes regulatory language based on California’s Assembly Bill 5. The PRO Act’s intent is to spread California’s AB5 all across the country.
The thing is, California’s AB5 threw freelance content creators out of work in the Golden State. According to some reports, around 30,000 writers and content creators live in California. After AB5 was enacted, many of them reported losing their business relationships. Even the former Speaker of the California Assembly demanded relief after the San Francisco Chronicle told him that because of AB5, the popular column he’d written for more than a decade could no longer be published.
Khanna, who represents a district in California, didn’t care at all about hurting content creators back then. He supported not only California’s AB5, but also the nationwide expansion of freelance busting via the federal PRO Act, championing the wishes of union organizers who want to treat freelancers like traditional employees:
Governor Shapiro has a similarly dismal track record when it comes to independent contractors. Before he became Pennsylvania’s governor, he was the attorney general. His time in that role coincided with the back-and-forth happening about independent contractors at the U.S. Labor Department.
During President Trump’s first term, the U.S. Labor Department created a rule to try and protect independent contractors nationwide from the nonsense happening in California. Trump’s Labor Secretary, Eugene Scalia, specifically wrote about how they were trying to help freelance writers in the face of AB5’s fallout. When the Biden-Harris administration took over, its new Labor Department rescinded that Trump-era independent-contractor rule as part of a push to expand AB5-type regulations nationwide.
In Pennsylvania, then-Attorney General Shapiro stood with Biden and Harris. In 2020, Shapiro issued a press release calling what Trump was trying to do “illegal” and claiming that it was “indefensible” to be doing it during the pandemic. (When our home offices were actually a perfectly safe space to work.) In 2021, Shapiro issued a press release that reiterated how his office had “led a coalition of 24 attorneys general in opposition to this [Trump] rule.” That press release praised the Biden-Harris administration for upending Trump’s efforts to keep independent-contractor business relationships legal.
As all of this was happening—as politicians like Khanna and Shapiro were leading the freelance-busting brigade—content creators were crying foul. On the West Coast, an entire Facebook group was created called California Freelance Writers United, trying to help fix the AB5 mess. Some podcasters had thoughts as well:
Across the country in New Jersey, I was among the freelance writers who co-founded Fight For Freelancers, which helped stop my state’s AB5 copycat bill and the federal PRO Act. Nationwide, everywhere from NBC Think to PBS Next Avenue, freelance writers produced articles explaining the problem with the regulatory path that pols like Khanna and Shapiro kept pushing.
People who write and make other types of content for a living also filed many of the 55,000 or so public comments that the Biden-Harris Labor Department received when it decided to rescind and replace the Trump-era rule. Here’s a snippet from a comment submitted by David Swanson, former president of the Society of American Travel Writers:
Here’s another snippet, this one from a public comment submitted by Paige Cerulli, a freelance content writer and copywriter:
Freelance content creator Marilyn Matarrese noted that she’s a union member in her public comment opposing the Biden-Harris plan:
There are many more public comments like these, but did politicians like Khanna and Shapiro listen?
Hell, no. Here’s Khanna standing in opposition to the content creators while promoting the Biden-Harris Labor Department rule change:
Note that Khanna didn’t even mention content creators back then. When he claims now that he will “never stop fighting for our content creators,” the appropriate response is: “Sir, we’re all still waiting for you to start.”
The Future is Now
Standing on the side of content creators, small businesses and free speech should not be a priority only when TikTok is in the news. It should be a priority for both political parties at all times—and that means protecting and defending everyone’s freedom to be an independent contractor.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in addition to 66% of America’s writers and authors being self-employed, so are 65% of our nation’s photographers, about a third of our video editors and camera operators, and a ton of the interpreters and translators who make all that content accessible to multilingual and hearing-impaired audiences nationwide.
What do younger voters think about all of this? One recent study done in collaboration with Bloomberg found:
“The largest demographic of side hustlers in the US is millennials. Millennials have earned the reputation of ‘the side-hustle generation,’ as many undertake additional jobs either to meet rising living costs or to pursue their passions and interests. …
“Among Millennials, writing, photography, and graphic design are the most common side hustles. These creative fields cater to side hustlers’ skill sets and interests, and meet growing demands in the market.”
What do even younger voters than those millennials have to say? According to a recent study by Upwork:
“70% of Gen Z freelancers say they freelance to have flexibility in their schedule; 64% to work in an environment not restricted by the limitations of age, race, or gender expectations; 64% to work from the location of their choosing; 62% to be able to pursue work they are passionate about or find meaningful; and 61% to take more control over their personal development and career path. …
“Gen Z freelancers are highly skilled, with 45% performing specialized tasks like computer programming, writing, and design, while 24% excel as social media experts and influencers, creating content for others.”
None of this changes just because TikTok is suddenly a focus of the national news. The underlying truth remains the same: Attacking independent contractors is attacking content creators.
Politicians who support freelance busting stand in opposition to content creators—no matter how much they want to pretend otherwise right now.