This week, it was revealed that 33% of TikTok users in the US get their news from, TikTok, up 11% from 2020. Meanwhile, nearly every other social media site has seen declines, with Facebook down to 44% from 54% just two years ago.

This trend is not just relevant to the States. In the UK, TikTok is said to be the main source of news for 7% of adults, up from 1% in 2020. This increase is driven primarily by younger users, with half of TikTok’s news followers falling in the 16- to 24-year-old category.

Among 12-to-15-year-olds, the favour veers to social media even more with their top three digital news sources being Instagram (29%), YouTube (28%), and TikTok (28%). However, these are all still overturned by talking to family (65%) and watching TV (59%).

So, what does this mean? Is TikTok the new Daily Mail? Will we be using TikTok as a makeshift coaster too after we’ve read it? For now, at least, this isn’t likely, and not just because TikTok is an app on your phone. 

Firstly, Ofcom reports that TikTok is still far behind conventional news sources. BBC One remains the most popular (53%), followed by ITV (35%) and of course Facebook (32%), which continues its reign as the top social media source for news in the UK.  

Secondly, young people aren’t committing to social media as a source of unbiased facts. Yih-Choung Teh, Ofcom’s group director for strategy and research, reported that youngsters do find news on social media to be less reliable. However, the variety of opinions they have access to online appeals to them.

Despite this, there are some good arguments for social media news mainly the authenticity of it. Christopher Stokel-Walker cited in The Observer the example of ‘ordinary Ukrainians documenting the atrocities of the Russian invasion’. Carefully curated news articles don’t quite stack up against a direct line of communication from the affected to the news watcher. From this perspective the worries of ‘the death of traditional journalism’ seem more justified.

On the other hand, misinformation does remain a paramount flaw in this method with examples from the Russia and Ukraine conflict including video game clips passed off as real footage.

To summarise, adults are getting a fraction of their news converge from social media but do remain mindful of the skews of the truth that come along with this platform. Being aware of misinformation is as important as ever but equally, when that misinformation comes sandwiched between the cutest child ever talking about his love for sweetcorn and funny videos of cats, it does feel more forgivable.

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