TikTok is a top spot for hot political goss

We already knew the battle for young voters is being fought on TikTok, but a new study from Pew Research Center shows just how engaged the app’s Gen Z users are. They’re politically savvy, engaged with election news, and some even view TikTok as a positive force for democracy–meaning the worries that voter disenchantmant is rampant among today’s youths might not be so founded when we’re looking at the youths who spend their time on TikTok.

Pew’s research showed that 48% of TikTok users ages 18-29 use TikTok specifically to keep up with politics and political issues; 52% said they use it to keep up with news, a big chunk of which these days is, of course, wrapped up in the presidential election.

But that preference for politics and news isn’t just in viewers: it’s in creators, too. Pew found there’s a large amount of political content being made: when looking at people ages 18-29, 50% of them said they see political content on the platform regularly. 88% of respondents said they see creators making funny posts referencing current news. 88% also said they see content where creators are expressing opinions about current news. And 69% of 18-29-year-olds said they see creators addressing breaking news events as they’re happening.

Perhaps the most interesting statistic to come out of this is what TikTok users think of the platform itself. 33% of 18-to-29-year-olds said TikTok’s impact on democracy is “mostly good,”

while 17% said it’s “mostly bad.” 49% said it had no impact on democracy.

A solid third of older Gen Z/young Millennials (unfortunately there’s no data from younger Gen Z) thinking TikTok is a positive force for democracy is pretty impressive, and says a lot about the kind of content they’re consuming. It’s clear from this data that a lot of young people are seeking creators who can inform them about politics–and probably analyze and contextualize that information for them, too.

This data adds yet more weight to the Biden administration’s recent decision to welcome around 100 creators to the White House for its first-ever creator event, where staffers were able to get a bead on creators’ political concerns, and the president himself was able to discuss some issues he’d like to see more political creators addressing, like his plan to lower prescription drug costs.

With all these young potential voters seeking out content and, perhaps more importantly, making content about politics, the Harris and Trump campaigns’ presences on TikTok might end up being instrumental–and this could truly end up being “the influencer election.”