According to the Pew Research Center, TikTok is growing rapidly as a news destination, but news and political accounts account for less than 1% of accounts followed by adults in United States. Research shows that about half of all TikTok accounts that adults follow in United States are influential creators. In addition, content related to news and politics is rare, with only about 10% of the following accounts that appeared in the study posting content related to these topics.
When Pew conducted a similar study of people users follow on X in 2022, they found that 1% of the accounts they follow belonged to politically exposed persons and 3% to media outlets and journalists. These numbers are still small, but they are more significant than those on TikTok, where media experts and media outlets make up 0.4% of followers.
That doesn't mean people aren't aware of politics on TikTok. According to Pew, 43 percent of users in the study followed accounts that discussed politics and current affairs, even though dedicated political and news accounts made up a small percentage of the accounts they followed.
Compared to other social media platforms, TikTok shows users a lot of content from people they don't follow through its "For You" algorithm. Even if celebrities and influencers don't post about politics, their occasional political manifestos are a testament to their impact, especially in election years.
According to a study by Harvard University's Ashe Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, celebrity support for political candidates and political causes does affect election outcomes. For example, in 2023, Taylor Swift posted a link to sign up to vote on her Instagram story, and 35,000 people signed up to vote. In 2019, Ariana Grande set up voter registration stations on her Sweetener tour, and another 33,000 people registered for voters. This trend applies even to less traditional celebrities, such as YouTuber David Dobrik who drew 128,000 people to sign up to vote when he ran a Tesla giveaway for those who signed up to vote.
Instagram has taken a different approach, removing political content altogether. Earlier this year, Meta stopped actively recommending political content on Instagram and Threads, sparking a backlash from creators. For existing Instagram and Threads creators who post political content, their posts may not show up to users who don't follow them.
Meanwhile, TikTok is facing an imminent ban amid fears that the app's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, will affect United States. According to TikTok, 170 million United States use the Los Angeles, California-based app.