Mission Statement

The mission of The Online Creators’ Association is:

• to advocate for the professional interests of our membership on the online platforms where they perform and/or publish;

• to perform and enable ongoing research into the behavior and history of online platforms, in order to provide our members with up-to-date, well-founded information, and to contribute to the body of existing social media research; and

• to aid members in improving the stability of their online content profession, both by offering support networks and guidance, and by influencing platforms to improve in meeting creators’ professional needs.

Organizational Scope

TOCA was founded by, and its membership overwhelmingly consists of, content creators on TikTok. For this reason our interest and advocacy centers on TikTok as a platform, but extends to other platforms that many of our members work with, such as YouTube, Twitch, and OnlyFans.

We believe all online content creators deserve and are entitled to organized and collective power. As TOCA grows we may expand our focus to include other platforms as central concerns, or partner with organized creator advocacy groups built on the foundations of other platforms.

TOCA’s history

The Online Creators’ Association was founded on July 19, 2020 by Cecelia Gray, as a Discord server built to connect creators and share our experiences on TikTok in order to better understand the way the platform treats its creators. As the server grew, our investigations deepened, and we began to assemble resources to help new members understand the platform, as well as creators outside TOCA via our TikTok and Twitch accounts.

We’ve partnered with other organizations to communicate concerns about TikTok’s moderation standards and practices, and have begun to formalize the organization’s operations so that we can continue to support future growth and an expanding range of goals. We are currently in the process of registering as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.