TikTok’s importance as source for political news
US politicians have tried to stop Chinese-owned TikTok, fearing that Chinese authorities can get access to too much information about US users. Despite this, a new survey shows that TikTok has a growing importance as a source for news also now prior to the US presidential election in early November.
Overall, TikTok users are roughly twice as likely to think TikTok is mostly good for American democracy as they are to think it’s mostly bad (33% vs. 17%). But the largest share of users (49%) think it has no impact on democracy, a new survey from Pew Research Centre shows.
“TikTok has increasingly become a destination for news, bucking trends on other social media sites”, the Pew says in a report.
A survey by the Centre has shown more Americans – and especially young Americans – regularly get news on the platform compared with a few years ago.
About half of those under 30 say getting news is a major or minor reason they use TikTok, a survey by the Centre shows.
For 48% of TikTok users ages 18 to 29, keeping up with politics is a major or minor reason why they’re on the platform. 36% of those ages 30 to 49 and smaller shares of older users say the same.
That compares with 41% of TikTok users ages 30 to 49 who say getting news is a reason they’re on it. The shares of older users saying so are smaller.
Nearly half of all TikTok users (45%) say they see at least some content about politics or political issues on the platform. That includes 6% of users who say political content is all or most of what they see.
Half of users under 30 say they see at least some political content on TikTok. That’s higher than the 39% of those 50 and older who say the same.
But that they read about politics on TikTok does not mean that they share or contribute political content.
Only 7% of users ages 18 to 29 and 8% of users aged 30 to 64 post at least some political content there.
Regardless of whether TikTok users say getting news is a reason they’re there, most see humor and opinions about news on the platform:
- 84% say they ever see funny posts that reference current events on TikTok
- 80% ever see people expressing opinions about current events
- 57% ever see news articles posted, reposted, linked or screenshotted
- 55% ever see information about a breaking news event as it’s happening
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