Who is Turning to TikTok for News?

Reuters analysts have found that, of the major social media platforms, TikTok is the channel on which users have the most trouble deciphering fake news from the truth; a worrying trend, particularly considering how the platform is now widely used for news, as the following chart shows.

Data from the latest edition of the Reuters Initiative’s Digital News Report 2024 shows how commonplace it now is for news consumers to turn to TikTok as a source for information in different countries around the world. Of the 47 surveyed populations, Thailand had the highest share of respondents who had used TikTok as a news source (39 percent), followed by Kenya (36 percent), Malaysia (31 percent) and Indonesia (29 percent). Each of the remaining countries in the top ten roundup are in the Global South, with Indonesia (29 percent), South Africa (28 percent) Peru (27 percent), Nigeria (23 percent), the Philippines (23 percent) and Colombia (22 percent). By contrast, turning to TikTok for news is far less common in the United States (9 percent) and several countries in Europe (4 percent in the United Kingdom, Austria and Czechia and only 3 percent in Denmark).

According to Reuters’ analysts, TikTok's success in reaching wide (and also younger) audiences, has been recognized by politicians who have used it in various media campaigns. For example, Argentina’s President Javier Milei's TikTok account has some 2.2 million followers.