The TikTok Tactics of The White House
Coverage of the Russian invasion has been covered around the clock by large media groups like Fox, CNN, and CNBC since the invasion a few weeks prior. As per any major issue, misinformation has the tendency to manifest itself into our timelines whether it be Reddit, the bluebird application known as Twitter, or from your favorite Instagram model. With social media becoming a prevalent piece of our everyday life, it comes with both pros and cons. Society has the benefit of groundbreaking news at the touch of a button but cons stem from an abundance of information that bombards us the minute an event happens because everyone is trying to be the first to report it. Businesses that run the social media sites and applications have done their part to label what may be misinformation but the White House is taking further steps.
On Thursday it was announced that 30 TikTok stars had been briefed via Zoom on the war unfolding in Ukraine. The White House has been closely watching TikTok’s rise as a dominant news source, leading to its decision to approach a select group of the platform’s most influential names. When the invasion began, Tiktok was flooded with images and videos displaying missiles targeting Ukraine’s capital. TikTok’s rise in popularity has given them the opportunity to be one of the major platforms to quickly deliver breaking news. As I stated above, with any major event, the spread of misinformation and propaganda often make their way onto the “for you page” causing issues for those who are uninformed. One creator stated “People in my generation get all our information from TikTok,” he said. “It’s the first place we’re searching up new topics and learning about things.”
This isn’t the first time, and likely won’t be the last time that social media is used to spread awareness. During the pandemic, movie stars and musicians displayed their support for vaccines, mandates, and Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan. A transition from the nightly news and Bloomberg articles to TikTok stars and Instagram stories is a bit daunting but it is something we will likely adapt to in the future. The transition comes with criticism as Jules Suzdaltsev, a Ukrainian-born journalist who operates the popular TikTok news channel Good Morning Bad News, said that he thought the overall tone of the briefing was too soft and that officials dodged hard questions. “The energy of the call felt like a press briefing for kindergartners,” he said. (The Washington Post) For those who are interested, you can listen to the call below.
In most recent events the country has been divided and it is unlikely that this one will be different. The main focus here should be to combat misinformation during major events such as this. Placing this responsibility on 19-22-year-olds is probably not the answer but in an effort to educate a younger generation it is a decent attempt.
*Disclaimer: This is based on information available at the time of writing. This article doesn’t display my opinion towards politics, government, vaccines, war, TikTok, conspiracies, or any other mentions.