Can TikTok Break Our Political Echo Chambers?

Hershey Suri
February 28, 2021
According to the Pew Research Center in 2019, 72% of Americans frequented social
media sites ranging from scrollable status-updates on Facebook to disappearing pictures on
Snapchat.1 In competition with each other to maximize user engagement, social media sites have
catered to the polarized minds of America through clickbait headlines and a feed curated just
“for you.” These sites have streamlined access to our political echo chambers, placing them right
at our fingertips. TikTok, a 15-60 second video production app created in December 2016, may
be the first social media site to break this polarizing trend.
In understanding the concepts of modern polarization, TikTok’s design, algorithm, and
performance medium bring us closer to democratizing media in the way other social media
platforms promised but did not deliver.
TikTok’s design reflects the original intention of social networking platforms. Journalist
Ezra Klein explains in his book, Why We’re Polarized, how social media attempted to
democratize the media when most newsrooms were run by prominent white men and showcased
news through this exclusive lens.2 Social media enabled us to broadcast our own intellectual
understanding and create a many-to-many structure of information consumption.3 This
dissolvement of the previous one-to-many structure allows anyone to go viral and spread their
message throughout the population. TikTok embodies this many-to-many structure through its
short video medium, which is distinct from the texts and images on Twitter or Facebook’s
“feed”.
TikTok’ system design allows for complete strangers to exchange political ideas and
break down the barriers of polarization. Lakoff and Wehling, in their work entitled Your Brain’s
Politics, explain how our brains think in metaphors which relate to our partisan values. These
frames continue to be perpetuated by news outlets and contribute to the mass polarization of the
United States. Their solution to our ideological divide is to diminish the metaphor by making
explicit the bias and framing exhibited in content. 4 Given the many-to-many structure of TikTok,
the majority (over 52%) of users––and the creators with the largest followings––are not news
outlets or celebrity influencers, but rather regular individuals from ages 10-29. 5 Users who
consume and produce content understand that this information is coming from and going to
ordinary people. Thus, producers are not tailoring their messages to a siloed political base and
consumers recognize the bias of the medium. In line with Lakoff and Wehling’s solution to
polarization, TikTok’s many-to-many structure encourages users who both produce and consume
content to recognize biases, leading to more social engagement across ideological spectrums.
Unlike competing social media sites, TikTok’s algorithm exposes users to information
independent of the people they follow. TikTok uses many advanced tracking technologies––user

1
Pew Research Center. n.d. “Demographics of Social Media Users and Adoption in the United States.” Accessed February 28,
2021. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/.
2
Klein, Ezra. 2020. Why We’re Polarized. Avid Reader Press: An Imprint of Simon and Schuster.
3
Tucker, Joshua, Yannis Theocharis, Magaret Roberts, and Pablo Barberá. 2017. “From Liberation to Turmoil: Social Media and
Democracy.” Journal of Democracy 28 (4): 45–59. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2017.0064.
4
Lakoff, George, and Elisabeth Wehling. 2016. Your Brain’s Politics. Andrews UK Limited.
5
“U.S. TikTok Users by Age 2020.” n.d. Statista. Accessed February 28, 2021.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1095186/tiktok-us-users-age/.
content interaction, device location and settings, and views––to tailor a “For You Page” (FYP). 6
While we are more likely to engage with content that appeals to our values and identity, the
TikTok algorithm ensures we will not only see videos we like, but also clips derived from
information taken from our cellular device and its diverse surroundings. Much of TikTok’s
political discourse occurs through the “stitch,” “green screen,” or “duet” features, allowing users
to respond in video form to TikTok content. By interacting with a political response which aligns
to your views, you increase your chances of that opposing perspective appearing on your screen.
Thus, if you engage in political TikToks that use the app’s features to debate partisan opponents
or visit websites which present different political views, your recommendation page will exhibit
diverse perspectives and allow for a more democratized form of media.
TikTok’s fun, light-hearted videos further disarm individuals’ ideological barriers. Klein
explains in his book that, whenever a liberal comes across a conservative tweeting “Sleepy Joe
Biden,” they are more likely to retaliate or tune out the content to protect their cognitive
identity.7 However, TikTok creators present their political opinions through videos: modern-day
performance. Whether we turn to the Ancient Greeks or early East and South Asian cultures,
performances through song and dance have attracted humans of various ethnicities, socio-
economic statuses, castes, and creeds. Today, through TikTok videos with popular music,
trending dances, and attractive storylines, users of various backgrounds are more likely to engage
with differing viewpoints without experiencing an ideological fight-or-flight response.
Additionally, as TikTok markets itself as an app where ‘anyone can go viral,’ users are
encouraged to produce content that follows the current trends. With various political views
presented under the vessel of a trending sound or a popular dance routine, more users will be
likely to engage with that content and become exposed to differing viewpoints.
While there are methods to remain in the social media echo chamber through the app, it is
extremely challenging. TikTok allows you to report, block, or “disinterest” a video to filter your
feed. You could also choose to only scroll through your “Accounts You Follow” page,
mimicking the Facebook experience. However, given the millions of users who engage on the
app daily and thus the numerous ideologies TikTok holds, it is difficult to filter your feed to
embody one perspective. Even TikTok acknowledges the unlikeliness of having a completely
filtered feed by disclaiming that when you select “not interested” on a video, there will be “fewer
related videos” on your FYP, not a complete removal.8
TikTok is fairly new in comparison to other forms of social media like Facebook and
Snapchat. However, its unique algorithm, system design, and visual medium paves the way for a
more democratized form of social media. On our country’s journey to bipartisanship, TikTok
might just be the first step.

6
McGlew, Molly. n.d. “This Is How the TikTok Algorithm Works - Later Blog.” Professional Consulting Blog. Later. Accessed
February 28, 2021. https://later.com/blog/tiktok-algorithm/.
7
Klein, Ezra. 2020. Why We’re Polarized. Avid Reader Press: An Imprint of Simon and Schuster.
8
Shaul, Brandy. n.d. “TikTok: Here’s How to Dislike a Video.” Accessed February 28, 2021.
https://www.adweek.com/performance-marketing/tiktok-heres-how-to-dislike-a-video/.