More U.S. Adults Get Their News From TikTok—As Facebook And X Slide

[beijingwalker]

More U.S. Adults Get Their News From TikTok—As Facebook And X Slide​

Britney Nguyen
Forbes Staff
Nov 15, 2023,04:31pm EST

A growing number of U.S. adults regularly get their news from TikTok, with almost a third of adults between 18 and 29 relying on the video-sharing platform, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center—even as fewer people get news from social media sites like X and Facebook.

Forty-three percent of TikTok users said they regularly get news on the platform, up 10 points from a year ago. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

KEY FACTS​

Between 2020 and 2023, the percentage of U.S. adults who reported regularly getting their news from TikTok has increased four-fold from 3% to 14%, according to Pew Research, which surveyed 8,842 adults in late September and early October.

Fifteen percent of U.S. adults between the ages of 30 and 49 reported regularly getting news from the platform, while 7% of U.S. adults between 50 and 64 years old and 3% of adults over 65 said they regularly get their news from TikTok, the survey showed.

Overall, 43% of TikTok users said they regularly get news on the platform—10 points more users than a year ago, and double the percentage of users who said the same in 2020, according to Pew.

Users of X and Facebook are more likely to regularly get their news from those sites than users of TikTok, but the number of users who rely on them for news has declined since 2020, falling from 54% in 2020 to 43% this year for Facebook and 59% to 53% for X, according to Pew.

KEY BACKGROUND​

TikTok has surged in popularity, especially among teenagers and young adults. While the number of U.S. adults using TikTok for news is growing, the platform—and many of its peers—have constantly been criticized for the spread of misinformation. TikTok has faced scrutiny for false claims about the coronavirus, information about the 2020 presidential election, and most recently, disinformation and graphic content about the war between Israel and Hamas.

The platform has also been criticized for concerns about its Beijing-based owner ByteDance. In July, another survey from Pew Research Center found that around 59% of U.S. adults viewed TikTok as a threat to national security. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee in March about how the company deals with user privacy and data security, and addressed fears that the Chinese government could access the app, which has been a major concern for the U.S. and other governments.

Earlier this month, Forbes reported that Chinese government officials had direct access to TikTok’s internal workplace collaboration platform on a ByteDance product called Feishu, which holds some of the company’s most important information. TikTok has insisted the Chinese government does not have access to U.S. user data.

More U.S. Adults Get Their News From TikTok—As Facebook And X Slide

Forty-three percent of TikTok users said they regularly get news on the platform, up 10 points from a year ago.

www.forbes.com

 

[Sam6536]

I wonder why USA hasn't banned TikTok yet considering how much they target it. Reddit, X, Facebook are already there to cater to the west.

 

[beijingwalker]

More Americans are getting news on TikTok, bucking the trend seen on most other social media sites​

BY KATERINA EVA MATSA
NOVEMBER 15, 2023

A small but growing share of U.S. adults say they regularly get news on TikTok. This is in contrast with many other social media sites, where news consumption has either declined or stayed about the same in recent years.

In just three years, the share of U.S. adults who say they regularly get news from TikTok has more than quadrupled, from 3% in 2020 to 14% in 2023.

TikTok, primarily known for short-form video sharing, has become especially popular among teens – two-thirds of whom report ever using the platform – as well as young adults.

Among adults, those ages 18 to 29 are most likely to say they regularly get news on TikTok. About a third of Americans in this age group (32%) say they regularly get news there, a higher share than in years before. This compares with 15% of those ages 30 to 49, 7% of those 50 to 64 and just 3% of those 65 and older.

More of TikTok’s U.S. adult users are getting news there as well. Currently, 43% of TikTok users say they regularly get news on the site, up from 33% who said the same in 2022. TikTok users are now just as likely to get news from TikTok as Facebook users are to get news from Facebook. Still, TikTok users are less likely than users of X, formerly Twitter, to get news on the site.

More Americans are getting news on TikTok, bucking the trend seen on most other social media sites

In just three years, the share of U.S. adults who say they regularly get news from TikTok has more than quadrupled, from 3% in 2020 to 14% in 2023.

www.pewresearch.org