TikTok users in favor of Harris felt protected in an algorithmic bubble until election day.
On TikTok, the algorithm continued to promote content favorable to Harris.
In the weeks leading up to the presidential election in the United States, Kacey Smith felt a growing optimism. As a supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign, she was aware that the competition between the Democratic candidate and Republican Donald Trump would be tight. As she scrolled through TikTok, she became convinced that Harris would emerge victorious. However, as election day approached, she began to perceive warning signs that overshadowed her enthusiasm. She recalled the platform showing her videos that highlighted the importance of reproductive rights, but also misleadingly suggested that there was a choice to be made between "women's rights and gas prices." This kind of rhetoric, while resonating in her digital environment, felt restrictive and risky to her.
As her fears were confirmed, Harris lost both the popular vote and the Electoral College, leading the candidate to concede victory to Trump. Information bubbles, like TikTok's recommendation algorithm, are a common concern for technology critics. Such feeds can create the impression of a personalized reality, allowing users to avoid those aspects they find uncomfortable, such as close people in their lives who supported Trump. However, while there are complaints about the misinformation these algorithms can propagate, what happened in this case was different. Voters, like Smith, understood the facts and the odds, but they underestimated how persuasive TikTok content could be in creating a world far removed from reality.
The TikTok algorithm is extremely personalized, designed to cater to the user's mindset, much like a television tuned specifically to their tastes. The "For You" page presents content based on what has been previously viewed or ignored, complicating exposure to other circles within the app. Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, president of NextGen America, a progressive organization focused on youth voting, notes that this phenomenon complicates the work of not only political activists but also candidates and media, as they face an audience exposed to diverse sources of information.
From the outset, Harris's campaign seemed to grasp the relevance of these bubbles. On TikTok, Kamala’s official account has 5.7 million followers, and a fully integrated team of Generation Z members produced content that was sometimes difficult for the general public to understand. Smith, like other TikTok users, realized that the platform recommended content based on her interactions. When encountering pro-Trump material, she preferred not to engage, as her goal was to prevent the algorithm from categorizing her as a Trump supporter. In retrospect, she wonders if a greater variety of political content could have provided her with more perspectives on the opposing stance.
The phenomenon of echo chambers is not limited to politics; it is challenging to know what is genuinely popular on TikTok. A report revealed that even liberal men were more likely to view Trump-related content than women. Pew Research Center data indicated that about 4 in 10 young people regularly get news from TikTok.
However, TikTok is not the only information bubble. Two years after Elon Musk acquired Twitter, now transformed into X, the platform has evolved into a politically right-leaning environment, with content propelled by Musk himself. While TikTok appears to be limited to offering user-preference-based content to generate advertising revenue, X’s tilt toward right-wing propaganda is a deliberate electoral strategy that has yielded significant results.
Alexis Williams, an influencer who had been generating content on politics and social issues for years, attended the Democratic National Convention as a content creator, sharing her impressions with her 400,000 followers. Williams, who held a critical view of Harris, felt optimistic about her chances of success. However, as election day approached and she saw videos showcasing favorable polls for Harris, Williams's confidence began to falter.
For many voters on TikTok, Kamala HQ's content seamlessly blends with other videos. The campaign used trending sounds and clips that seemed to casually connect with their audience. However, Smith felt that although she supported Harris, there was a limit to what she could tolerate of the content she saw, beginning to feel like part of marketing rather than a genuine political effort.
The effect of bubbles is not a new phenomenon, and voters have multiple partisan news sources at their disposal. Nevertheless, the false sense of certainty that TikTok provides feels even more potent, as each user's experience is both personal and global. Sara, Williams reflects that with the growing precision of algorithms, our understanding of the outside world is limited, highlighting the difficulty of maintaining a shared notion of reality in an environment where everyone is encapsulated in their own virtual worlds.
