A growing number of Americans are turning to TikTok for news consumption, according to a recent Pew Research Center analysis. Since 2020, the platform has experienced the fastest growth among social media sites, with users reporting they scroll for news rather than for entertainment.
In just four years, the percentage of adults who say they regularly get news from TikTok has surged from 3% to 17%. This figure includes Americans who do not have a TikTok account.
Among Americans with a TikTok account, 52% report using the app for news, a jump from 43% last year and 22% in 2020. Over this four-year span, the number of users turning to TikTok for news has more than doubled.
TikTok users are now more likely to get news from the platform than Facebook users are from Facebook, or Instagram users from Instagram. However, they are still less likely than users of X to use the site for news consumption, according to the poll.
For the half of Americans who use TikTok for news, there may soon be a need to find another source. While court challenges are ongoing, TikTok faces a Jan. 19 deadline to sever ties with its Chinese ownership or face a ban in the U.S.
Some elected officials in Congress express concern that TikTok’s connections to China could jeopardize American data and affect the app’s algorithm, potentially influencing users’ politics and views on social issues by controlling the content they see.
Public support for a TikTok ban has decreased over the past 18 months, with some users citing it as an infringement on free speech, while the government continues to label the app a national security threat.
