In the past decade, we have witnessed the rise of political activism on social media. Gen Z has grown up surrounded by technology, with social media shaping how we perceive the world and absorb knowledge. With over 1 billion monthly users, TikTok has become one of the biggest up-and-coming social media platforms worldwide. Its successful short-video format has grown in popularity and even inspired the creation of Instagram reels. Like other apps, creators post videos about anything and everything, including social justice and political leaning content. While it is a great tool for activism, Tiktok creates a hostile environment for productive political education and conversations across party lines, where views are reinforced rather than contested.
Like other social media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok’s algorithm shows geared content to its viewers. TikTok’s recommendation system delivers content that caters to specific views, trends, and topics with which the user has previously interacted. So, while TikTok’s “For You Page” makes viewers feel like they’re receiving all kinds of news, stories, and trends from a range of content creators, in reality, everyone’s FYP is meticulously catered to their individual preferences. TikTok’s advanced technological algorithm and short videos have made many people, including myself, fall victim to the “infinite scroll.”
TikTok’s recommendation-based system is what makes it so successful and addicting, but many fail to realize that its algorithm is also what makes it incredibly dangerous. The spread of misinformation is as prevalent as ever, as we have witnessed during the 2020 American election and COVID-19 vaccination efforts. TikTok’s ability to repost a video and reuse a viral sound allowed misinformation to spread at record rates, thus contributing to anti-vaccination narratives during the pandemic.
Furthermore, while being able to curate your feed is incredibly fun and can create a safe space for many users –by only interacting with positive content – it has led to intense political polarization among users. Because of its algorithm, political activism that occurs on the app only gets directed toward viewers who have previously interacted with similar content. This means that viewers who enjoy conservative-leaning content will get bombarded with similar perspectives and vice versa with left-leaning content. This has fueled serious ideological and political pipelines affecting youth, in a way, I would argue, is severely understudied.
Similar to what we witness on YouTube, TikTok’s algorithm perpetuates different kinds of “echo chambers” both on the ideological right and left. An echo chamber is “an environment where a person only encounters information or opinions that reflect and reinforce their own.” Fuelled by confirmation bias, echo chambers breed misinformation and can distort a person’s perspective, so they have difficulty considering opposing viewpoints and discussing complicated topics. By narrowing users’ exposure to a specific set of views and perspectives, one’s critical thinking capacities are limited.
The creation of echo chambers on TikTok has developed a very distinct leftist political culture where various climate activists like Greta Thunberg or even Parkland survivors are tokenized. With every word and action being meticulously watched and overanalyzed, these children become Gen-Z ambassadors of change. This wave of intense activism is inspiring to some who are demanding concrete action and passionate change, which is something we definitely need as a society, especially regarding climate and social activism. I have personally felt inspired seeing how social media has been used as a powerful mechanism for raising awareness on various issues and mobilizations, enabling the empowerment of many silenced groups.
However, while certain movements are gaining momentum, I argue that voices that have gained traction on the app often preach a form of activism that is motivated by the aim of going viral rather than achieving meaningful change. While I do think that certain bold and flashy statements are necessary to get a conversation going and raise awareness, seeing videos like the Van Gogh soup incident reinforces my point that a lot of leftist media activism on Tiktok lacks nuance and context and makes them look ridiculous.
On apps like TikTok, many creators partake in leftist discourse, often without spreading factual information. This is problematic for young viewers who are starting to form their political identity as they are exposed to these discourses, claiming to be scientific or objective truth. This has, in my opinion, led to a dangerously twisted “woke culture” that is counterproductive to true social justice activism. I would, therefore, argue that the leftist content echo chamber allows viewers to construct a false reality that ignores real-life dynamics and often fails to be intersectional by prioritizing privileged voices on the app.
While there exists a dynamic liberal activist community seeking to inspire and educate youth, we also see a rise in trend-fuelled leftist movements such as “cancel culture” and extreme political correctness that, I argue, is by nature more reactive than productive. I have personally encountered many creators who throw around academic words and try to create controversial political content out of nothing. In this clip, a black creator stitched a video of Drew Barrymore dancing in the rain, where the second creator drew a parallel to racism. Many criticized the creator for claiming that Barrymore was being racist, and I agree. The creator was trying to draw attention to the repression of black voices on the app, but her point was not taken seriously because of how she decided to express it.
Moreover, the over-policing of pronoun discourse and the emergence of things like “cat genders” has overshadowed productive conservations and made people scared to partake in gender identity discourse as they are scared of being “hunted down” by the woke police. This makes it difficult for pronoun discussions to be taken seriously. Because TikTok makes controversial and misinformed content go viral, emotionally charged and controversial videos do very well and have tended to become the face or forefront of different discourses, which inaccurately portrays the real conversations happening in various communities.
On the other hand, conservative echo chambers and alt-right pipelines have led to different kinds of radical content fuelling different conspiracy theories and discriminatory views. Because content that spreads misogynistic, homophobic, and racist content goes heavily unregulated, young people are highly vulnerable to the values and ideals spread through problematic Tiktok content. We can take, for example, the rise of “Andrew Tate,” an ex-American-British boxer and self-proclaimed billionaire, who says women belong in the home, can’t drive, and are a man’s property. Tate’s showcasing and promotion of his particular misogynistic and violent “Alpha Male” persona, in my opinion, is concerning for young male viewers, as they are coached to follow this alpha-male behaviour. Yet, the thing I find most disturbing is that despite various women claiming to have been assaulted by him, he benefits from his platform that promotes patriarchal norms and views about women. In a video clip explaining why he moved back to Romania from the UK, he claims, “I’m not a rapist, but I like the idea of just being able to do what I want. I like being free.”
The idealization of Alpha male personas is extremely concerning, as young school boys are exposed to misogynistic and abusive rape culture rhetoric. Still, they perceive it as either comedic or “alpha male goals.” Yet, by exposing young boys to “alpha male” comedic content, apps like TikTok breed incel behaviour and ingrain toxic masculine ideals in young children. The rise of toxic masculine “icons” leads to a specific form of ideological indoctrination that kids are unaware of.
Political conversations are progressively losing nuance. Outrageous arguments and claims overshadow relevant and constructive arguments. We can see this exacerbated during the “No Nuance November” trend, which encouraged creators to post their “hot take” without explanation, further discouraging meaningful discourse on both right-leaning and left-leaning opinions. Because many creators hope to go viral, the more ridiculous their content is, the better. Yet, at what point does it stop?
When we talk about TikTok and these various social media platforms, the conversation steers towards “screen usage” and mental health. Society and parents fail to realize how early political and ideological indoctrination starts. As TikTok’s algorithms worsen social and political polarization, the formation of the youth’s political identity and values will be severely affected. We are already seeing it in the classroom, where trends and personas like Andrew Tate have become icons overnight to young boys who do not understand that these personas perpetuate sexist ideals.
My app usage has made me reflect on how TikTok has shaped my interest and political orientation. It is imperative for social media content to cross partisan lines, so that young people can engage with different political opinions and form their own political identities. I hope others become inspired to reflect on the media they are consuming and think about how their social media exposure shapes their values and opinions.
Edited by Sabrina Nelson
Charlotte is a third year student studying Political Science and International Development. She has been a Staff Writer for Catalyst for the past year. She is interested in Indigenous Issues, Canadian news, and topics involving feminism and media.