By Saffiyah Khalique
TikTok is one of the most popular social media apps among Generation Z. This video
recording app, which has been responsible for numerous viral dance challenges and
produces humorous content. However, as of Summer 2020, the app has become the latest tool to be utilised by Gen Z to fight for a multitude of causes, including racial and gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, climate change and gun violence in the United States.
A July 2020 survey conducted by Reach3 Insights in amongst 495 people aged between 13- g,24 years old explored how effective TikTok is as a contributor to social activism.
Is it just performative activism, or is the app actually contributing to grassroots activism? Reach3 Insights found that overall Gen Z cared more about a variety of social issues compared to those aged 25+. The top five social justice issues that were most important to them were COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, Gun Violence, Women’s Rights and LGBTQ+ rights. 98% of them have seen a TikTok, and 62% are active TikTok users. Their usage is incredibly important, especially when over half of them have stated that TikTok helps them stay updated on the news.
And this has led to real change, as TikTok users are more likely to engage in political activities because of TikTok. This has led to more than half stating that they have engaged in discussion with family and friends, as well as conducting self-education. In terms of creating a wider community impact, 44% said they signed petitions, but what
about physical change? Well, TikTok users have been shown to be more likely to act on their political beliefs, and this has actualised in protest attendance. In regards, to the Black Lives Matters movement, 26% of TikTok users attended a BLM protest, while only 13% of non-users did.
Overall, of those surveyed, 98% believe that TikTok helped generate meaningful action for the BLM movement. This usage of TikTok as an activist tool in the United States has reached one of the most contentious political debates in the country’s history, abortion rights. From the Roe v Wade Supreme Court ruling in 1973, which granted women in the United States access to abortion, there has been constant conflict among pro-choice and pro-life groups. Anti-abortion extremists have harassed doctors, staff and patients for decades and since the early 1990s eleven people being killed in this conflict.
Now, Gen Z is taking matters into their own hands to fight for their rights and protect patients through recording harassers and posting them to TikTok. One user, @alexthefeminist, appears on the top trending videos under the abortion rights hashtag. She works as a part of a volunteer group who work to protect patients from pro-life harassment. She does this by recording the individuals and questioning their motivations and posting them on TikTok for the world to see these individuals harassing clinic patients and workers. Alongside, this they have created petitions and use the app’s platform to share them, alongside other educational resources.
Some of her videos have gathered over 300,000 views. This is an incredibly large reach for one individual, and considering the number of young people that use the platform as their main source of news, it shows that TikTok is not a platform that we should underestimate. At the same time, the Chinese video networking app has been the centre of global politics over questions about its privacy with President Donald Trump vowing to ban TikTok in The United States.
However, it is not just the United States that sees Tik Tok as a threat, several countries across Asia and Europe have their reservations over the app, including several European Union states and other Asian countries, such as India, Pakistan and Japan. It is this role in it being used a social justice tool that may support claims of governments that the app needs to be looked at under a harsher lens due to the fears that the platform
could share the personal data of TikTok users with the Chinese government. Currently, the United States has granted ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok an extension to November 27th to restructure the ownership of the app in the U.S.
Overall, the video-sharing app has become the latest tool in the belt of Gen Z’s fight for human rights by recording their everyday experiences to shed light on the political issues important to them.
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