The biggest political news brands on TikTok aren’t who you think they are
Tabloids, TV networks, and liberal startups drive news engagement on the app
FWIW, this week’s newsletter is sponsored by Civic Shout
Last month, Pew published a new report showing that “about half of TikTok users under 30 say they use the app to keep up with politics and news.” For us, it’s a stunning stat that underscores TikTok’s importance in this election, but it also raises a question: What kind of news are many of those users seeing?
To find out, we looked at 44 political news brands on TikTok with a combined following of 74 million users. Since they each launched, those accounts’ videos have received a total of over 3.1 billion “likes” - and many more billions of video views.
For purposes of our tracking, we only included media companies that share posts about politics - both partisan and mainstream - but not individual creators. (Sorry, @underthedesknews!) As we’ve been monitoring the conversation about the presidential election each week on TikTok via our FYP newsletter, we have seen that these official news brands are consistently some of the most popular on the platform for political news.
By far, the most viral news account on TikTok is British tabloid The Daily Mail (@dailymail). It regularly posts sensational news clips that to date have received over 1 billion views. While the company’s editorial is generally considered right-wing, its main editorial bias on its TikTok content is towards clickbait videos that have a high likelihood of going viral. For example, when President Biden was still in the race, the account would repeatedly highlight his declining age and verbal gaffes. Nowadays, it has also shared content that is unfavorable to Trump. Here are a few @dailymail videos highlighting Trump’s recent confusion, Pence’s refusal to endorse Trump, and Trump “not wanting to answer” a question on abortion. Similar to The Daily Mail, the British TV channel Sky News is also a top source for political news clips on TikTok.
Surprisingly, given that they are usually pretty slow to adapt in this digital era, legacy broadcast networks CBS News and NBC News are also crushing at the TikTok game. Both companies use their accounts to share high-quality news clips from across their TV news programming.
In terms of partisan media brands, the Left has been actually much more successful than the right-wing media ecosystem at establishing a presence on TikTok. Longtime video news company NowThis has done exceptionally well there, as has Meidas Touch, COURIER, More Perfect Union, and The Recount. Most of these liberal-leaning news accounts combine rapid-fire news clips with originally produced content featuring rotating personalities.
Conspicuously absent from the platform? Popular DC outfits like POLITICO and AXIOS, and right-wing mainstays like Breitbart and Newsmax. Even conservative cable behemoth FOX News has a very minimal presence on the app.
It’s now become almost cliche to note that “the media ecosystem is changing.” We’ve written those words too many times to count. But the level of these media companies’ engagement on platforms like TikTok truly represents a scrambling of influence and reach for the entire industry - and has major implications for how political campaigns should think about reaching Americans through the news.
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Digital ad spending, by the numbers:
FWIW, political advertisers spent just over $20.2 million on Facebook and Instagram ads last week. These were the top ten spenders nationwide:
Preserve America, a pro-Trump super PAC backed by megadonor Miriam Adelson, is running video ads from a former Harris supporter who said he switched over to Team Trump when an immigrant allegedly killed his son. The ads are running in Michigan and Wisconsin.
Also on the Right, the NRSC is running emoji-heavy video ads attacking Sen. Jacky Rosen (who is up for re-election in the Silver State) from a new Facebook page called Nevada – Just the Facts. It’s a strategy they’re experimenting with in a few other states too.
Meanwhile, political campaigns spent $21.7 million on Google and YouTube ads last week. Here were the top ten spenders nationwide:
The Right is also pushing the crime narrative pretty hard on Google + YouTube with MAGA Inc., the pro-Trump super PAC, spending $70,000+ alone on this video ad of a woman who was allegedly attacked by an immigrant.
On X (formerly Twitter), political advertisers in the U.S. have spent $9.3 million on ads year to date. Here are the top spenders:
…and lastly, on Snapchat, political advertisers in the U.S. have spent $6.6 million on ads year to date. Here are the top spenders:
A Republican group called the Future Coalition PAC, whose goal is to peel voters away from VP Harris, appears to be running ads in Michigan that claim that Harris is very pro-Israel and specifically target Arab American voters.
Team Snapchat themselves are running GOTV ads that show users how to get registered to vote by swiping up on the ads.
Presidential head-to-head
FWIW, here’s how weekly digital ad spending (Facebook/Instagram, Google/YouTube) compares between the Trump and Harris (formerly Biden) campaigns year-to-date:
Here’s how things stand when it comes to presidential campaign digital spending: the Harris (formerly Biden) campaign has spent about $153 million since January 1st, whereas the Trump campaign has spent about $29 million over that same period. It’s a huge gap.
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What else is happening on TikTok?
ICYMI, clips of Vice President Kamala Harris’s interview with CNN’s Dana Bash – her first as the Democratic nominee – dominated the political conversation on TikTok this past week. But some prominent TikTokers pointed out that the interview wasn’t nearly as substantive as they had hoped and provided their own substance. More in this week’s FYP newsletter 👇
More from around the internet:
Apparently, the Russian government was funneling money to a prominent right-wing digital media operation. It could just be the tip of the iceberg.
Trump went on the Lex Fridman podcast this week, where he admitted that his re-posting activities on Truth Social are what have gotten him into trouble.
The Harris campaign shared one of those addicting video game side-by-side TikToks, which people online were pretty hyped about.
Now that we’re just about two months away from Election Day, some researchers think concern about AI’s impact on our elections is overblown – and that we should be focusing on more pressing threats to democracy.
Speaking of, disinformation researchers are warning that our reality is being shaped by certain influencers and the algorithms that serve them to us… rather than, you know, actual real things that are happening.
That’s it for FWIW this week. This email was sent to 23,198 readers. If you enjoy reading this newsletter each week, would you mind sharing it on Twitter or Threads? Have a tip, idea, or feedback? Reply directly to this email.
When mentioning the right’s “crime narrative” in the future, could you please note that this narrative is a complete fantasy and fabrication, considering that the crime rate has plummeted and immigrants commit way less crime than native born Americans? Thanks.
The Daily Mail is a rag. While not owned by Murdoch, it’s in the same mold as his tabloids.