TikTok: A Hub of Youth Political Action

TikTok’s Role in Social Conflicts

When it comes to the spread of information, there is no tool as powerful as the internet. As technology has rapidly developed, so too has humanity’s ability to share ideas and media with virtually the entire world. Naturally, when notable events take place, the internet is used to report and share news globally. 

The power that sharing visual coverage of potentially unimaginable, real-life events has to mobilize the masses has been proven time and time again since the capability to do so was achieved during the Vietnam War. (Le Compte and Klug, 2021) As has the power and persistence of youth-led activism. Since the 2010s, armed with an arsenal of websites and social media platforms and spurred by the rise of TikTok, youth activists have had more momentum than ever to radicalize their peers and create meaningful change in the world. (Carnegie, 2022) This is evident in many instances, not the least of which are March for Our Lives, the Global Climate Strikes, the most recent series of Black Lives Matter actions, various national protests for democracy, and potentially the most prominent current issue gaining traction on TikTok: the Palestinian genocide. Social media has enabled users globally to gain fuller understandings of the genocide in Palestine and has directly resulted in a youth-led movement advocating for a ceasefire in Palestine.

Methods of Activism

Primary Sources

TikTok enables users to upload videos that they’ve taken to the internet for public viewing. This is exactly what Palestinian users have been doing since Israel began its genocidal “retaliation” efforts in October. They are giving everyone in the world with access to the internet a front row seat to the atrocities occurring in Palestine as they happen: live, unfiltered, firsthand coverage of a genocide. (cbsnews, 2023; true islam, 2023)

Journalism & Reporting

In addition to simply posting videos, many users speak about what they’ve experienced or report on what is happening in Palestine. A large number of TikTok creators are video journalists posting short videos instead of formal articles. (“The Best Journalism TikTok Accounts to Follow,” n.d.; Prince, 2024)

Education & Accessibility

Some TikTok users have been creating videos for the purpose of educating the masses about the genocide. Short, easy-to-digest explanations of various facets of a very complex conflict make convoluted international politics accessible to the average TikTok user. Providing people with the context necessary to critically engage with others about current events ensures that word will continue to spread. Information is power. (Maxi, 2023; Easom, 2023; YourFavoriteGuy, 2023)

Fundraising

As Palestinians are attempting to evacuate Palestine to escape Israel’s attacks, not only have GoFundMes, Venmo and PayPal accounts, and various aid websites been spread, but technologically-savvy folks have capitalized on TikTok’s monetization opportunities to fundraise for those in need. Filters created by activists have been a popular means of raising money. (Mendez II, 2023; Nessa, November 2023)

Additionally, musicians have released songs that can be streamed on a variety of services (as TikTok has made many a song go viral) or used as TikTok audios for the purpose of collecting royalties or funds from TikTok to donate to people or organizations in Palestine. (SaltyLicorice, 2023)

A simple 15-second video with a specific filter or audio, posted publicly or privately at no cost to the user, will send a very small sum of money to the creator. With thousands of uses, thanks to thousands of users banding together, significant sums of money can be reached for donation.

While I admit, it is incredibly difficult to guarantee the legitimacy of these audio and filter creators and their promises to donate, many of the TikTok users promoting these fundraising methods have pointed out: it doesn’t cost the user anything to make these videos, so why not take 15 seconds of your life to do so just in case? I would argue the gamble is offset by the lack of financial commitment and the accessibility of these donation methods. If someone is worried about the legitimacy of a certain creator, there are plenty who are providing proof on their profiles and there are hundreds of different songs and filters out there to choose from. (Nessa, December 2023)

Promoting Action: How to Protest a Genocide

Another type of video that content creators are publishing are “How to” videos about different ways to get involved and protest the genocide. One such “How to” is “How to Contact Your Representatives” in which creators walk viewers through a variety of ways to get in touch with their government representatives to express their demands, and often demonstrate on camera. In the TikTok below, the creator, Zana Bamad, explains how US residents can use the resource 5calls.org to find their representatives, call them, and read a given script to demand a ceasefire in Palestine. Not only are videos like these a phenomenal resource in themselves, but the comments also offer many helpful tips. One under this video recommends that people with phone-related anxiety record their statement before making the call and play the pre-recorded demand over the phone.

@nainabs

How to call your reps CEASEFIRE NOW #fyp #ceasefire

♬ original sound – nainabs

Digital Citizenship and Critical Thinking

Digital citizenship is an ever-growing term which has been defined by UNESCO [in 2016] as being able to locate, access, use and create information effectively; actively, critically, sensitively and ethically engage with users and content while navigating digital environments. As well as, being safety-conscious and acting responsibly. This shows that education in all its forms (formal, non-formal and informal) is necessary for a sustainable society of knowledge and information… as well as offering equal access to information, technology and training for young people to become functional, educated, responsible, critical and engaged citizens of a digital era. (Peart et al., 2020)

The videos below exemplify the development of digital citizenship skills in the modern age. In the first, a video from the Gaza Strip showcasing the abhorrent apathy and, evidently, glee on the part of the Israeli soldiers responsible for wiping out tens of thousands of Palestinians. This video is posted without comment, and simply grants the entirety of the internet access to this context, however they may critically engage with it. In the second, a Jewish woman deconstructs pro-Israeli claims that supporting Palestinians is inherently anti-Semitic. Even if one does not subscribe fully to the narrative that Kate shares here, at the very least she is walking viewers through her process of navigating these bold claims from a place of empathy and understanding. In the third, a woman named Rox talks viewers through 3 instances of blatant bias on the part of CNN, a major news source. She breaks down each piece of evidence to explain how it is evidence of bias and what it may indicate on a larger scale. Once again, walking viewers through these critical engagement methods will enable them to do so one their own and will result in a much more equipped population of digital citizens.

@perezbrenna

IDF soldiers riding children’s bicycles found amongst the rubble. Presented without comment. #gaza #palestine #israel #news #breakingnews #fyp #foryou #greenscreenvideo

♬ original sound – Brenna Perez

@leftistmommy

Supporting Palestine has never been antisemitic. #israel #freepalestine🇵🇸❤️ #antisemitism

♬ original sound – Kate

@millennialrox

Is CNN ok? Check out @K•A•Y for the math. #cnn #cnnisajoke #propaganda #genocide #mainstreamnews #freepalestine🇵🇸 #freepalestine #warongaza #israelpalestineconflict

♬ original sound – Call me Rox ✌️

Effectiveness

As much as the majority of young people, I’d say, are more than familiar with our being painted as phone-addicted, apathetic zombies, it is very interesting that we are spending a large portion of that time engaging with current events. (Flynn, 2024) We can’t help it. Studies such as the one shown to the right are picking up on this shift, but they are failing to ask why this change may be occurring. I don’t mean though analysis, either, I mean asking those they are polling: why is this the case? Being a user of social media is becoming intertwined with being a consumer of national and international news. (Le Compte and Klug, 2021) Platforms are inundated with coverage of the world falling apart in front of our eyes, and we are literally watching it happen. It is becoming less and less of a faux pas to get one’s news from social media platforms, and this change is twofold. For one, the world is quickly understanding better than ever that the need to question and fact check information received online applies to mainstream news sources as well as the Wikipedias and Facebooks of the internet. Additionally, now that users on TikTok, especially, have carved out such a large niche in the platform for primary source material to be posted and shared internationally, users are receiving some of the most raw, reliable information about current events through social media sources. (Bradshaw, 2021)

This is not to say that social media does not need to be fact checked, it is only to point out that it is generally a better bet to believe the content posted by a user in Gaza talking about bombs dropped that day with a live video feed than it is to believe the one-sided CNN or FOX coverage that is receiving their stories straight from Israel (or running their coverage by Israel before releasing it), like this, honestly hilarious, propaganda photo that briefly went viral after it was released by the Israel Defense Forces last November. (Fabian, 2023) People were quick to jump online to point out that in no world are boxes in the middle of a supposed war labelled like these, nor is English the primary language on either end of this supposed aid delivery. (Sonya, 2023)

While the Palestinian genocide is still very much happening, it is being monitored by the masses. While I am not naive enough to think that the simple act of watching will stop it, educated masses are harder to placate than ignorant ones.

Sources