As TikTok becomes a more popular news source for Americans, young adults increasingly believe the platform exposes them to information they’re unlikely to see elsewhere, according to a new survey of Americans’ news habits.
The survey, released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center, looks at the role major social media platforms — Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X — play in Americans’ news diets. According to the survey, TikTok is the second most popular source of news after X, though most TikTok users don’t primarily think of the shortform video app as a news source.
Among TikTok users, only 15 percent say keeping up with the news is a major reason they use the app. Still, 35 percent of those surveyed said they wouldn’t have seen the news they get on TikTok elsewhere. And unlike other apps, the news users see on TikTok is just as likely to come from influencers or celebrities as it is from journalists — and it’s far more likely to come from total strangers. (Meanwhile, most Facebook and Instagram users say the news that pops up on their feeds is posted by friends, relatives, or other people they know; on X, users are more likely to see news posted by media outlets or reporters.)
Though most TikTok users don’t primarily use the platform with news in mind, the Pew survey suggests that its popularity as a news source is on the rise — as are lawmakers’ concerns about the information users see on the app. In April, President Joe Biden signed a bill that would ban TikTok unless its China-based parent company divests from the app within a year. Some supporters of the so-called TikTok ban (who often emphasize that the legislation is not a ban since ByteDance can prevent it by selling TikTok) say the issue lies in TikTok’s powerful algorithm and the role the Chinese government could play in shaping what information, including news, 170 million American users see.
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