6/29/2023 0 Comments Hype house members tiktokbegan organizing paid influencers on TikTok and other social media platforms as early as 2020. Marketing companies focused on digital political communication in the U.S. And TikTok has been described as a “ key platform for youth political expression.” They form aspects of their social and political identity over the internet and social media. As Pew and children’s advocacy groups demonstrate, these same young people spend a lot of time online. For example, here in Texas, recently proposed legislation would close polling places on college campuses.Ĭoncerningly, research from UNICEF suggests that young voters are especially vulnerable to political manipulation online. Because of this, some politicos are engaged in near-overt efforts to stymie the youth vote. As a demographic, they are particularly concerned with hot-button issues like abortion and gun control. Researchers and political parties alike advocate for the revolutionary voting power of young people. The firm closely guards up-to-date statistics on user demographics, but in 2022, Pew Research reported that “67 percent of teens say they ever use TikTok, with 16 percent of all teens saying they use it almost constantly.” Lawmakers and intelligence officials have been quick to point out that many, even most, of these users are young. They take advantage of weak regulations related to disclosure in order to hide their relationships with mainstream political groups and to give their synthetic influence campaigns the illusion of being “authentic.” Foreign governments and other international groups have employed them too.Īccording to TikTok’s own numbers, over 150 million Americans use the video sharing platform. Many of these companies - and the political campaigns who hire them to coordinate well-placed TikTokers - are based stateside. Shadowy marketing firms now pay vast armies of TikTok influencers to promote political content with the goal of swaying young voters.
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