Is TikTok Now A News Source?

A Pew Research Center survey says Americans are now regularly getting their news from TikTok, despite the company’s insistence that it’s an entertainment app.

Roughly 10% of adults in the United States get their news from TikTok, and that number goes up to 26% when talking about adults aged 18-29. A study by NewsGuard found that the platform has issues with misinformation, which affects almost 20% of videos when searching the app. Many users utilize the service as a search engine, which means roughly 1 in 5 videos contain inaccurate information.

News consumption on TikTok is up, while other sources are faltering. Facebook is seeing a downward trend in news traffic, with a 10% decrease from 2020 to now. YouTube remains roughly the same, while TikTok’s news digestion has tripled since 2020.

Whether you still read the daily newspaper or get your news from an app, it’s always a good idea to look into the sources of where you get your info from. Diversifying your media consumption is also a good way to make sure you’re seeing information from various perspectives and not being influenced by one outlet in particular.

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