(New York) After Facebook and Twitter, it is TikTok’s turn to establish itself as a crucial platform in an American presidential campaign. And everything indicates that Donald Trump is best placed to benefit from this application used by 170 million Americans, including more than 62% of 18-29 year olds.
Ironic twist: as president, Donald Trump tried to ban TikTok in 2020. Like other members of his party, he suspected this social network belonging to the Chinese group ByteDance of being used by Chinese intelligence.
However, last April, the former president began a spectacular about-face. He first denounced Joe Biden’s promulgation of a bipartisan law giving TikTok 270 days to find new non-Chinese investors, otherwise the platform will be banned in the United States.
“Just so everyone knows, especially young people, corrupt Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok,” he wrote on Truth Social, his own platform. “He’s the one pushing this ban, and he’s doing it to help his Facebook friends become richer and more dominant, and to be able to continue to fight, perhaps illegally, the Republican Party,” he said. he added, twisting the truth.
“The president is on TikTok”
Two days after being convicted by a New York jury in the Stormy Daniels affair, Donald Trump completed his about-face. He in turn joined TikTok, something that Joe Biden’s campaign team – but not the president himself – had already done last February.
The first video released by the Republican presidential candidate shows him with Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), during a fight night in Newark, New Jersey.
“The president is on TikTok,” announces Dana White.
“It’s an honor,” Donald Trump responds in the video where he is filmed greeting fans and posing for selfies.
TikTok’s reaction to the arrival of Donald Trump says a lot about its political domination of this platform. At the time of writing, he has more than 6 million subscribers on this social network launched in 2016, compared to 371,800 for Joe Biden’s campaign team.
But this is not the most relevant measure. An analysis carried out by TikTok and unveiled by the Puck site last month indicates that since November, nearly 1.3 million positive videos or images of Trump have been published on the platform, with 9.1 billion views, compared to 651,000 pro-Biden posts, with approximately 6.15 billion views.
Other data revealed by Puck: from January 2023 to May 2024, videos with the hashtag #Trump2024 received nearly 473 million likes with 6.5 billion views, significantly more than the 50.9 million views Likes and 558 million views for videos with the hashtag #Biden2024.
These data are not reassuring for the Democratic camp. Especially since around a third of 18-29 year olds mention TikTok as a regular source of information, according to a survey carried out by the Pew Research Center in fall 2023.
And it’s not the most sober, balanced or reliable reporting on either the US economy or foreign policy, including the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
“Much of the political expression we find on TikTok is humorous or cynical, colorful, often exaggerated, and infused with popular culture references. It is deeply emotional, ranging from laughter to tears,” write researchers Ioana Literat and Neta Kligler-Vilenchik in an article on TikTok and youth political expression published in 2023.
“It is often deeply personal and addresses political issues through the personal experience and worldview of young people. In other words, she is anything but serious, detached and rational. This does not detract from its significance. »
Exploiting young people’s frustration
In fact, analysts attribute to TikTok the negative or pessimistic perception of 18-29 year olds regarding the American economy, whose data is nevertheless positive or encouraging in terms of employment, wage growth and inflation, among others.
TikTok is also a platform where pro-Palestinian content is shared which contrasts with the coverage of the mainstream media, which is more neutral or sympathetic towards Israel. This content has contributed to hardening young people’s opinions, not only towards Israel, but also towards Joe Biden.
In its strategy for TikTok, the Trump camp mainly intends to exploit young people’s frustration with the economy and inflation.
He will address young men in particular in a series of short videos highlighting aspects of economic management where Joe Biden is most vulnerable.
And, to amplify his messages, he will rely on conservative influencers whose subscribers are more numerous than those of their progressive counterparts. One of these influencers, Charlie Kirk, released a video last week with the message “TikTok’s favorite president” and featuring Donald Trump at a town hall hosted by his group, Turning Point USA, in Phoenix .
Donald Trump took the opportunity to make this promise to the assembled crowd of young conservatives: “I will never ban TikTok. »
This promise should not only delight young Americans subscribing to TikTok, but also billionaire Jeffrey Yass, a major donor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, who owns 15% of ByteDance, the social network’s parent company.