Dunning, Olgesby and Lias are all creators living in Louisville, KY. (Giselle Rhoden / LPM)On Saturday night, TikTok went dark then came back online 14 hours later for more than 170 million users in the United States. Now, the fate of the social media platform is in the hands of President Donald Trump, and some Kentucky TikTokkers are hoping this isn’t the end of the app.RaeShanda Lias said she anticipated that TikTok would shut down and come back. The Louisville-based content creator had already started posting more content on other social media platforms. She said the situation felt “orchestrated” to give Trump credit for the app’s return.“I was like, ‘Oh, well played. Well played.’” said Lias, whose @shopaif account has 2.5 million followers. “We live in a capitalist country. I get it, but playing with people's emotions and businesses and money is not a fun thing to do when people rely on the app for their livelihood.”On Inauguration Day, Trump signed a slew of executive orders, including one that places a 75-day pause on the law banning TikTok while he works to save the platform and protect national security. Federal lawmakers and the U.S. Supreme Court moved to ban TikTok because its parent company is based in China.When TikTok came back online Sunday morning, American users saw a message saying, “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S. You can continue to create, share and discover all the things you love on TikTok.”On Tuesday, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul proposed a bipartisan bill that would repeal the TikTok ban, according to a report from the Courier Journal.‘There’s a catch’Louisville resident Clayton Olgesby — known as @clayy.edward on TikTok — used his account to teach African American history beyond what is typically taught in schools. He said he felt relieved when TikTok came back online, but he was still apprehensive.“While TikTok was down, I thought, ‘OK, what was the point?’ Because things don't just happen, just because. There had to be something that was happening behind the scenes,” he said.Olgesby, who has more than 217,000 followers, also mentioned the theory that the weekend’s events were meant to make Trump look like he “swooped in and saved TikTok from going away.”Another Louisville TikTokker, Chelsie Dunning, reviews local restaurants with her family on her account @notget_likec, and posts cooking content on her other page @get_likec.Dunning said something seemed “off” with her “For You Page,” or FYP, after TikTok came back online. A FYP is a personalized feed of content that caters to what a user likes, shares and downloads on the app.She said she saw political content there, even though she actively avoided watching it on TikTok before it went dark. The app’s algorithm is meant to learn users’ preferences and show them new content based on the posts they interact with.Other TikTok users across the country posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter that is now owned by Trump ally Elon Musk, mentioning the same phenomenon.“Is anybody else’s tiktok fyp nothing but politics? I’m not even watching the s— and it doesn’t go away,” one user said on X.“TikTok feels suspiciously different. And I’m getting a lot of Trump propaganda up and down my fyp & when I commented the word Palestine on a post it was immediately taken down for violations……? What in the world is happening?” another user posted.Lias, the Louisville-based creator, said she noticed that TikTok filtered more than 700 comments on a video she posted on Monday.Some users on the Bluesky platform also mentioned noticing a change in the content.One user asked, “Anyone else getting ads for Trump merch and Christian dating apps in between their normal fyp on tiktok?”For Dunning, the TikTok drama opened her eyes.“It set a fire under my rear,” she said. “If it's just that easy, to just take something away and just bring it back. It never dawned on me until then how important it is to vote, how important it is to use your voice.”Dunning realized how important it was to bring attention to the pending ban because of how many people could lose their livelihoods, she said.‘TikTok changed my life’Lias said she’s grateful for collaborating with major brands like Netflix and NYX Cosmetics because of TikTok. Lias posts fashion reviews, comedic stories and life advice for her massive following.“I don't even know how that happened,” Lias said. “I have been all over this country. I have met…not just celebrities, but even activists, workers and people that are making differences in the world.”Lias was recently nominated for an NAACP Image Award for her impact on the platform and for her work as a business owner.Dunning, who has three daughters, said the community she built on TikTok helped her navigate motherhood and her emotions.“The community is phenomenal, honestly, because it's so welcoming,” she said. “[TikTok] doesn't feel as if it's something that should be taken away from us.”Olgesby, a Tennessee native, said TikTok changed his life once he started gaining traction on the app four years ago. He was a transfer student at Tennessee State University at the time.“I had people that already knew me, and wanted to get to know me [because of TikTok],” he said. “It's hard to meet people sometimes because you weren't there from the beginning. So Tiktok helped me in that way, just by having that conversation starter.”What’s next?Dunning said she plans to keep using TikTok for now.“If this goes away in 75 days, I at least have those 75 days to influence people,” Dunning said. “I'm trying to bring attention to other people, other communities, other restaurants, other businesses, all throughout Louisville. I'm trying to do good, and I'm trying to tell you my honest opinion about things.”If TikTok is permanently banned, Dunning said she’ll move to alternative social media apps like RedNote, a popular Chinese social platform that looks like TikTok.Dunning isn’t alone. RedNote is one of the top apps on the Apple App Store, after millions of people signed up for it last week. Many of these users are coming from TikTok, and some call themselves “TikTok refugees.”Olgesy said he’s considered traveling to Canada just so he can redownload TikTok because he accidentally deleted it over the weekend.“It just was a really emotional time,” he said. “People are like, ‘Oh my gosh, you're emotional over an app.’ But…a lot of people were able to build brands for themselves, sustain a living for themselves through the app.”Lias said she will continue to build her brand as a content creator and business owner regardless of what happens to TikTok.“We live in an ever-changing world,” Lias said. “So I have, at 43, become adapted to change. And anything that was happening, it was out of my control. So I had to make peace with that, and I have always been OK.”Without a solution, the TikTok ban will go into effect on April 5.