Let’s talk about TikTok and the US presidential election.
The app has a lot of people talking
and dancing, lip-syncing and lately even campaigning.
Please go vote when November comes around so we can get him out of here.
All aboard the train — Trump 2020.
Owned by a company in China
TikTok has 800 million users worldwide.
And it’s growing — fast.
But there are those who see it as a threat.
So why is TikTok getting all this attention?
Is our privacy at risk?
And does this app like other social media platforms
have the potential to influence the US election?
Let’s be clear.
Facebook is still the biggest and most valuable
social media company in the world.
But there’s a new kid on the block
TikTok’s been around for only three years
and it’s blowing up.
Especially in America.
TikTok makes it easy to upload videos, add effects
choose music, switch up recording speeds.
You can even change what you look like.
But it’s even easier to just get lost in it.
This app is essentially an endless scroll
of punchy videos that are a maximum 60 seconds long.
It’s also got its own TikTok celebrities.
A Chinese company called ByteDance
launched TikTok in 2017.
Real videos that make your day.
It later bought the popular Silicon Valley
startup Musical.ly for $1 billion and merged the two.
Today TikTok is worth more than $75 billion.
It’s got an American CEO but it’s still Chinese owned.
Here’s how huge.
In the first three months of the year TikTok
was downloaded more than 300 million times globally.
That’s a record.
But in terms of overall monthly active users
it’s still behind Facebook’s more than 2 billion
but way ahead of Twitter and Snapchat.
And a lot of TikTok’s users are young.
Around 40% are between 16 and 24.
Ahead of a presidential election
that’s millions of potential new votes.
And what was once seen as just a fun app
is actually getting more political.
And it’s gone beyond just posting political views.
In the last year TikTok has demonstrated
its power to mobilise. Hashtags help.
They make TikTok content searchable
and easier to go viral.
That’s what happened in May during the protests
over the killing of George Floyd by police.
TikTokers have also been credited with using the app
to pull off some pretty big pranks.
Just before a Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma
thousands of Korean pop music fans had the idea
of reserving free tickets without showing up.
And the message went viral on TikTok.
I recommend that all of those of us that want to see
this 19,000 seat auditorium barely filled
or completely empty
go reserve tickets now
and leave him standing there alone on the stage.
Whaddya say?
It definitely looked like they pulled it off.
The Trump campaign said TikTokers
and K-pop fans weren’t the reason
though they did acknowledge thousands
of fake phone numbers were registered.
Some argue that these types of political movements
are able to snowball because TikTok feeds you
what you want to see and hear.
The algorithm collects mountains of data
on videos you like and users you follow.
And it uses that data to create TikTok’s homepage
that’s called For You.
It’s a hyperpersonalised loop of videos
it thinks you might like.
But once a social media platform gets this popular
people notice its power.
Starting with that echo chamber and its potential
to perpetuate hateful or inaccurate content.
And that’s not just a problem for TikTok.
That was the very criticism levelled against Facebook
in 2016 during the last presidential election.
The big scandal for TikTok so far though
has been about security.
Last year Check Point Research said it had found
ways hackers could tamper with TikTok accounts by
for example, making private content public.
The US military has even ordered
its personnel to delete the app.
TikTok says it’s fixed the security issues
but it’s got other problems.
US officials have been investigating TikTok
because even though it's an American operation
it’s owned by a Chinese company.
And Chinese companies by law can be forced
to hand over personal data to the government.
Now TikTok denies all of this.
But the Trump administration is now considering a ban.
The Trump campaign even took out Facebook ads
to get supporters to sign a petition.
Would you recommend that people download
that app on their phones?
Tonight, tomorrow, anytime currently?
Only if you want your private information in the hands of
the Chinese Communist Party.
Now it’s unclear if the US can actually ban the app.
Or if there is truth to reports that a US company
is trying to buy TikTok
which would sever Chinese control.
But the prospect of a ban was enough to get its users riled up.
Now I don’t think it’s a coincidence
after Tulsa was a flop.
Out of the blue now suddenly
you wanna go ahead and ban TikTok?
A bunch of TikTokers flooded the Trump campaign’s
mobile app with bad reviews.
If an app gets underneath one star
Apple will actually delete the app.
So let’s delete that thing.
So aside from all the pranks, the hype
and the concerns TikTok is expected to be
a real player in this election.
Because while older Americans in swing states
won Trump the presidency in 2016
this year there are many more young voters.
A third of the electorate are millenials
And some studies suggest they tend to skew Democrat.
That’s a lot of votes
if they show up that is.
Some think it could be an important tool
to mobilise voters.
But there’s no question that when it comes to this
presidential race Facebook is still the real battleground.
It’s simply a bigger platform with more users.
And that means it has access to more personal information.
The company makes money from all that data
which we give up for free.
And Facebook sells it to advertisers
who tailor those ads to each of us.
It’s called micro-targeting.
The issue with Facebook is keeping
that data secure so it’s not misused.
That’s what happened the last time around.
In 2018 it was revealed that the now defunct
political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica
has stolen the data of millions of Facebook users.
That data was used to create psychological profiles
target US swing voters and then attempt to manipulate
them for the then presidential candidate
Donald Trump, during the 2016 election.
It got the head of Facebook in hot water at the time.
Facebook now says it’s got better safeguards for our data.
And it’s changing its settings so that users
can see fewer political ads.
We just have to manually opt out.
It also says it’s cracking down on foreign interference.
As for TikTok it’s also facing
allegations of foreign interference
something both TikTok and the Chinese government deny.
So what about misinformation?
Content that’s just plain wrong?
Ahead of the elections the pressure is piling
on social media companies to do more.
To step in and take down fake or misleading posts.
Facebook’s facing most of the heat.
TikTok is feeling it too.
The company says it's launching what it calls
a transparency centre in California
to moderate content.
It’s blocked a bunch of hashtags linked to
the QAnon conspiracy movement.
And it’s also been taking down inaccurate videos
like this one of Joe Biden appearing to endorse Trump.
We can only re-elect Donald Trump.
The president even tweeted it.
But here’s what Biden actually said.
Excuse me we can only re-elect Donald Trump
if in fact we get engaged in this circular firing squad here.
And the more TikTok grows
the closer we get to November
the more the company finds itself in the middle of a debate
over how much social platforms
should police content.
This election is going to play out on all the social platforms.
It’s just that right now TikTok’s got momentum.
It’s why anyone in politics is paying attention.
We’ll have a lot more on the US presidential election
in the run up to the November vote.
So if you don’t want to miss those episodes
you can like, follow and subscribe to Al Jazeera
wherever you’re watching this video.
I’ll see you next week.