Hank Green says TikTok won't tell him how much it's paying him

'It'd be nice if I knew how much money I made.'
By Elizabeth de Luna  on 
Hank Green in a blue button up shirt, holding a microphone.
Credit: Monica Schipper/Getty Images

TikTok has other priorities at the moment, but Hank Green would love it if the platform could tell him how much it's paid him since January.

In an appearance on The New York Times' Hard Fork podcast, Green told hosts Kevin Roose and Casey Newton that his TikTok dashboard hadn't been updated for several months and that it displays his payouts in British pounds (Green is a longtime resident of Montana).

Green shared the tidbit as part of a larger conversation about how creators will weather the impending sale (or ban) of the platform. When asked if the money he's made on TikTok has changed since he posted a 2022 YouTube video about TikTok's Creator Fund, Green said, "It'd be nice if I knew how much money I made. I have no idea, it hasn't updated since January. It's broken. It thinks I'm British. It's paying me in pounds."

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He also added, "The thing to remember about TikTok is that like it's not super together," by which he meant that internally, TikTok cannot keep up with its rapid growth.

Newton then noted how that kind of chaos may have led to the ban in the first place: If your creators aren't happy, they're not likely to organize in favor of keeping you around. And if Hank Green, one of the most prominent creators on the platform, is having trouble understanding how much the platform pays him, then it's likely that many smaller creators are struggling with similar issues in silence.

Topics TikTok Creators

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Elizabeth de Luna
Culture Reporter

Elizabeth is a digital culture reporter covering the internet's influence on self-expression, fashion, and fandom. Her work explores how technology shapes our identities, communities, and emotions. Before joining Mashable, Elizabeth spent six years in tech. Her reporting can be found in Rolling Stone, The Guardian, TIME, and Teen Vogue. Follow her on Instagram here.


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