Imagine making a TikTok that gets one million views. If you are an eligible creator in the United States, Brazil or several other countries, those views could contribute towards a payment from TikTok itself.
If you made the exact same viral video while living in South Africa? From TikTok’s Creator Rewards Programme, you get nothing. Some South African creators have had enough.
A growing online campaign is calling for users and creators to boycott TikTok on 1 September, arguing that South Africans help provide the videos, trends, music, and engagement that keep the platform moving, yet are excluded from one of its main direct-payment programmes.
Their basic complaint is fairly easy to understand: If South African content is valuable enough to go viral on TikTok, why is it not valuable enough to qualify for the same rewards?
Wait, TikTok does not pay South African creators?
Not through its Creator Rewards Programme. The programme pays eligible creators based on the performance of qualifying original videos, using a metric called RPM, essentially rewards per 1,000 qualified views. To join, creators generally need at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 video views in the previous 30 days, while qualifying videos must be original and at least one minute long.
As of July, local reporting listed the programme as available in only a small group of markets, including the US, UK, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Brazil and Mexico. South Africa and the rest of the African continent were excluded.
TikTok does not publish one guaranteed payment rate for every 1,000 views. Rewards vary based on factors such as qualified views and video performance.
But South African TikTokers do make money, right?
Being excluded from Creator Rewards does not mean that no one in South Africa can earn money through TikTok.
TikTok told ITWeb in July that creators in Sub-Saharan Africa can make money through features such as LIVE gifts, video gifts, subscriptions and Work with Artists. Creators can also make money outside TikTok through sponsorships, affiliate deals, appearances and by selling their own products or services.
TikTok has also run creator-development programmes in Africa and regularly promotes African creators internationally. In February, its global 2026 Discover List included creators from South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.
TikTok is perfectly happy to celebrate South African creators. Those creators are asking why that celebration does not extend to the same direct rewards programme available elsewhere.
South Africa has some serious TikTok clout
This is not an argument being made about a tiny market with three guys uploading braai videos. South Africa has more than 17 million TikTok users, according to figures cited by Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi.
South African culture has repeatedly been featured on the app.
TikTok itself has highlighted the global role of South African creators and music. Its July campaign around Tyla’s A*POP album, for example, described the singer’s rise as closely intertwined with TikTok and noted that she alone had 17.6 million followers on the platform.
Which brings us to the government’s argument. If South African creators are good enough to help TikTok build audiences and shape global culture, why should the country they happen to live in determine whether they can earn Creator Rewards?
Even the minister has entered the chat
Malatsi has been pushing TikTok on this issue since at least 2025. In July this year, he again described access to creator remuneration as a matter of “economic justice”, saying government had repeatedly spoken to TikTok but had not persuaded the company to extend Creator Rewards to Africa.
His argument is that the size or economics of a particular country should not automatically determine whether creators there qualify.
Earlier, Malatsi put it even more sharply, arguing that excluding African creators sends the message that African creativity can have reach without being assigned the same economic value.
The government is now considering working with other African countries to put more pressure on platforms regarding creator remuneration.
The rest of Africa is asking similar questions
Kenya has been having its own argument with TikTok. In February, Kenyan MPs rejected calls for an outright TikTok ban and instead backed stronger regulation of the platform. But lawmakers also specifically called for monetisation policies that would allow Kenyan creators to earn directly from their content.
So the fight is becoming bigger than whether one South African creator gets paid for a viral dance. A broader question is raised about the creator economy: Can global platforms build enormous audiences in African countries while deciding that their most lucrative creator programmes stop at the continent’s border?
TikTok would argue that Creator Rewards is only one way of earning money and that it continues to expand other commercial opportunities for African creators. The company told ITWeb it was exploring new ways to reward creators and would keep adapting its offerings based on feedback.
SARS already counts influencing as income
SARS formally added social influencers as a taxpayer segment in 2025 and made clear that creators must declare income from brand collaborations, sponsored posts and affiliate marketing. “Income” does not necessarily mean cash.
SARS says products, services and travel received in exchange for promotional work may also count as taxable income.
Research from the University of Cape Town has similarly examined how promotional goods received by influencers can fall within South Africa’s existing income-tax framework.
So South African creators find themselves in an odd position. They are already expected to treat influencing like a real economic activity when SARS comes knocking. They would quite like TikTok to do the same.
Will everyone really disappear from TikTok on 1 September?
Social-media boycotts face an obvious problem: creators depend on the platforms they are protesting against for their audiences, visibility and, in many cases, their livelihoods.
Right now, the 1 September action appears to be an online campaign, rather than evidence that millions of South African TikTok users have committed to logging off.
But whether TikTok actually goes quiet may be less important than the conversation the boycott creates. South African creators are no longer only asking brands to pay them more.
They are asking the platform itself why a view generated in Johannesburg appears to qualify for fewer earning opportunities than a view generated in London, São Paulo or New York.
Calay is a community journalist for Explain News. She’s passionate about storytelling, literature, piano, and everything meme culture. When not overthinking article angles, she enjoys watching video essays on YouTube and is excited to grow in the explain newsroom.
