A fifth of U.S. adults now regularly get news on TikTok, up from just 3% in 2020. In fact, during that span, no social media platform we’ve studied has experienced faster growth in news consumption, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis.
TikTok is primarily known for short-form video sharing and is especially popular among teens – 63% of whom report ever using the platform.
But it has also become a popular news source for young adults. In our new survey, 43% of adults under 30 say they regularly get news there, up from 9% in 2020.
As someone who never had used tiktok I’m honestly not sure how. Like are there Tick Tock channels that just do news? Or is it just random people say shit and they believe it? I don’t get the mechanics. I thought Tick Tock was mostly just for porn. And some dances that eventually turn into porn.
I don’t use it but am sent clips from friends fairly regularly. There are lots of content creators who fact check articles and help fight misinformation. But there are just as many spreading propaganda.
There are are the normal outlets like CNN, ABC, ETC and then there are independent journalists or journalists just working in their free time, then there are more trusted accounts that are aggregators or do deep dives into very specific stopics. Then there are a lot of random people saying shit… It’s not the worst place to get news if you have critical thinking skills.
I spent a great deal of time on TikTok from 2021-2025 when trimp allowed it to return, I have never seen any porn on the platform, I saw very few dances.
There are a lot of new outlets that have channels, there are a lot of independent journalists on there as well. There were also people, normal people documenting their experiences as they were happening (bombings in Palestine, protests, etc).
From when I was on TikTok if it’s even decent channels it’s people putting there own spin on the news. It misses a lot of smaller stuff and also doesn’t let you form your own view from a few different places. Also creators disappear all the time.
And now I have Camel by Camel stuck in my head, thanks for that
To be fair that’s kind of how any news source works if we get right down to the essence of it