Congress is terrified that TikTok could be deployed as a disinformation tool to shape Americans' views of current events in China's favor. It's a big part of why it passed a law in April to force a sale of TikTok's US assets from its China-based owner, ByteDance, or else face a ban.
But are Americans worried about news and disinformation on TikTok? Not so much, at least when compared with other platforms, according to a March survey of around 10,000 US adults conducted by the Pew Research Center, which was released this week.
In fact, compared to Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter), respondents felt that TikTok was the app least likely to influence the news stories they saw, whether that be via algorithmic recommendations or content moderation. By the numbers, around 61% of US adults said they felt TikTok was influencing the news they were shown, while 74% said Facebook was, 72% said Instagram was, and 66% said X was.
Respondents who said they consumed news also tended to be less concerned about the accuracy of the news information they found on TikTok compared to other social apps. 71% reported seeing inaccurate news on TikTok "sometimes" or "extremely or fairly often," compared to 76% on Instagram, 84% on Facebook, and 86% on X.
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Here's the breakout of how often news consumers saw news they deemed inaccurate on the different platforms:
- TikTok: Extremely/fairly often (23%); Sometimes (49%)
- Instagram: Extremely/fairly often (25%); Sometimes (51%)
- Facebook: Extremely/fairly often (33%); Sometimes (51%)
- X: Extremely/fairly often (37%); Sometimes (49%)
Of course, what respondents view as "inaccurate" should also be scrutinized, given that we live in a polarized news media ecosystem where information can be labeled as fake to serve a particular interest.
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Still, TikTok beating its peers at Instagram and Facebook when it came to perceived accuracy of news, and the degree to which it was viewed as putting its thumb on the type of news information it surfaced, is notable, particularly given that members of Congress have criticized the platform for how it moderates current events like the Israel-Hamas conflict.
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TikTok has regularly pushed back against those criticisms, but it may not matter. Earlier this year, President Joe Biden signed a divest-or-ban law meant to address national-security concerns around what TikTok's owner ByteDance could be compelled to do by the Chinese government. Former President Donald Trump also attempted to ban or force a sale of TikTok in 2020, but more recently has flip-flopped, saying he opposes a ban.
Social apps don't love news content, but their users do
Instagram and Facebook have recently been leaning away from news as a category, even as about half of US adults say they get at least some news from social media. Meta's Twitter-clone, Threads, has also adopted a similar stance on news.
According to Pew's survey, 25% of X users said that getting news was a "major" reason they used the platform, and 15% of TikTok users also reported that getting news was a "major" reason for why they're on TikTok.
Meanwhile, TikTok is also leaving users feeling the least "worn out" by the amount of news they see on the platform compared to the other apps. 47% of Pew respondents said they felt worn out by news on TikTok "sometimes" or "extremely or fairly often," compared to 70% for news on Facebook, 64% for news on X, and 64% for news on Instagram.
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So what is 'news' on TikTok?
TikTok grew its US audience rapidly between 2018 and 2022 after merging with lip-synching app Musical.ly and offering an endless stream of short videos centered on music, dance, comedy, and other areas of entertainment and media.
But as the platform has exploded to more than 1 billion users globally, with a self-reported 170 million US users, it's nurtured a growing crop of news-focused accounts.
The news content that reaches TikTok users is often not from accounts run by traditional news organizations like The New York Times or the Washington Post.
Among Pew survey respondents who consumed news on TikTok, 67% said that information came from journalists and news outlets, compared to 68% from influencers or celebrities, and 84% from "other people they don't know personally."
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TikTok users told Business Insider last year that they tended to view individual creators or non-news accounts as more authentic, relatable, and trustworthy sources compared to traditional institutions that they believed had an agenda. Some users turn to news influencers who don't work for outlets, such as Vitus "V" Spehar, or follow news events by watching purported on-the-ground footage.
"What I'm providing people is a near-peer model of education," news-commentary creator Kelsey Russell told BI in November. "Somebody that looks like you, that talks like you, that acts like you, that is around your age, is able to explain a topic that you might not be able to understand."
