Contemporary Politics Through the TikTok Algorithm

Bryant Valenzuela had this report in Harvard Political Review. Here is an excerpt:

It’s 1:00 a.m. You are lying on your bed, phone in hand, scavenging the great depths of a social media platform that has already consumed 12 hours out of your 24 hour day. Post after post, eyes almost shut, you continue scrolling through hundreds of videos featuring creators advocating for political and social justice, from the Black Lives Matter movement to the campaign to Stop Asian Hate. 

Tiktok, a social media platform designed as a mixture of Instagram and Snapchat, has become the prime avenue for political messaging in the 21st century, beating out televised campaigns, advertisements and other media structures. Consequently, with its foolproof and politically intuitive algorithm distinct from any other, Tiktok has become the new and invincible source for the creation of political echo chambers in the 21st century. 

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