TikTokTrends Week: 4
Week of August 10th
Welcome to week 4 of TikTokTrends. I am glad you all subscribed and hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter!
This week, we’ll be talking about Kamala Harris, Trend Wars, and President Donald Trump’s impersonators — all of which show the growing importance of TikTok as a ground for political debates and campaigning among young voters.
For more information on TikTok Trends, or to read previous editions, check out the archives here.
Let’s dive in:
#BidenHarris2020
One of the biggest news stories of the week here in the US obviously, was Joe Biden’s pick for his running mate. The hashtag BidenHarris2020 has about 12 million views and can be seen being used by people for and against the Biden campaign.
The Context
The video above — one of the most popular ones with the #BidenHarris2020 last week — had around 350,000 views. The creator makes note of what Harris’ pick signifies by referring to her as “the first woman vice president”, ‘the first black vice president”, and “the first Asian-American vice president”.
Biden’s decision to pick Harris was mostly positive amongst democratic content creators, with videos showing their support. Harris being chosen for VP is a historic moment for the U.S. If elected, for the first time in U.S. history, the White House will not be occupied by two white men in the senior-most positions.
But many were also pointing to Harris’s record as a prosecutor. There were videos mocking Harris for her strict policies during her prosecutor days with a scene from the TV show Parks and Recreations.
Harris, who calls herself a “progressive prosecutor”, is said to have a weak record as San Francisco prosecutor and later California’s attorney general between 2011 and 2017 when it came to criminal justice and police accountability.
Videos of Harris during the democratic debates, when she attacked Biden, were also shared, questioning her support for the presidential hopeful. Harris went on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on June 17th, before being selected as the VP, where she explained that she does believe in Biden and that the reason for the harsh words was because of the nature of the debate. This has caught the attention of many conservative creators, who were unconvinced by Harris’s explanation of the situation and said she made a 180-degree turn.
Creators who celebrated Harris being picked, on the other hand, were excited about the Harris-Pence debates, posting facts in support of Harris and many videos of her dancing to show her relatability.
An interesting thing to note is the attempt to politicize Tech N9ne’s song “Red Kingdom” in some of these videos.
The TikTok video I mentioned at the start of this section is played on top of the song. It was initially used by Trump supporters on TikTok — among whom it was an instant hit — as a show of support and to hype up their viewers for the election.
The song has an intense buildup, up to where “Red Kingdom” is mentioned. This example from a month ago shows a creator named Annemarie using the song to show her support for Trump by featuring a building with a painting of the American flag.
However, the song has recently been taken over by the #BLM movement and democrats. When the song is now searched on TikTok, videos supporting Trump are nowhere to be found. Instead, creators against Trump are seen showcasing BLM signs, or just explaining what the song, which was written as a nod to the Kansas City Chiefs football team, is actually about.
This brings us to the next topic. The on-going Trend Wars on TikTok.
#Trump2020 vs #JoeBiden
When there are trends, there can always be wars.
There are two main ways people can find the content they are looking for on TikTok. The first is hashtags: As we all know these are keywords that allow for content to be grouped together to find it easily. The second is the sounds used by creators. This can be a song, a person talking, or a combination of the two. Content creators are using these search methods to influence what’s trending on the platform.
Link for the video on the left and on the right.
The Context
The two images above show creators aiming to change what is trending for the two hashtags #Trump2020 and #JoeBiden. The top video on the #Trump2020 is a video of Bernie Sanders' grandson walking out of the door, with the song called Putin Walk, an internet Meme, playing in the background. On the other side, when #JoeBiden is searched, the top video is of a bull … pooping. I never said the trend war was in any way a war of intelligence.
The video of the bull was created by an account called Mr. Corona, most likely not their real name. The account has two videos in total, and this one has almost 2 million views and about 300,000 likes. The only purpose of this video was to get it on top of the trending list of #JoeBiden. It appears they have succeeded.
The second video appears to be shared by Cole Ewoldsen, Sanders’ real grandson. He only has 4 videos on his account and has almost 7 million views on this video. When #Trump2020 is searched, Cole’s video is seen at the top, with other anti-Trump content following it.
The trend wars are a big deal on TikTok since a lot of the content revolves around using the same sound and similar hashtags. Creators have found a way to play the other side. Changing the top trends of a hashtag has particularly become a go-to move for BLM and Biden supporters.
Many Biden supporters are now beginning to change the trending videos in many of the Trump trends. The top 3 videos on the #DonaldTrump are of those making fun of the president, the top video on the “Red Kingdom” song is now about Kamala Harris, and the list goes on.
There is an increase in the amount of political content coming from the anti-trump side. However, the numbers are not close at all. Although not a direct insight into the current situation, there are 8 billion views on the Trump2020 hashtag, while there are only 1 billion on the Biden2020 hashtag. There are a lot of factors here. The Trump2020 hashtag has been out there for longer, while Biden has only recently started to receive the full support of his potential voters, but the difference is still considerable.
Seeing more anti-Trump content is a good thing for the platform in general. When one side outweighs the other, the information being distributed becomes controlled by that one side. A lot of people, especially Gen-Z folk, are getting their news and information off of social media platforms that are not designed to bring the truth, rather the most enjoyable content. This creates a bubble of information, where viewers are generally shown similar content to what they have previously liked or who they have followed, rather than what is true.
Getting more anti-Trump, democratic or left-wing content is, for now, leveling the playing field, but from what I see, the pro-Trump content creators are much quicker, and much more efficient in explaining their views and getting their point across.
Next week I will dig deeper into how conservative TikTokers use the platform and the ways they manipulate the information in their favor.
#Impersonations
Let’s end with a fun one. The hashtag itself is not on the trending list of the week, however, the video I have linked to below, definitely is. Impersonating a president is nothing new and has been done for decades. But this week, an impersonator used Trump’s voice to order a meatless meat and cheese pizza and hoped to get a discount because they did not have ketchup.
The Context
The video is by Evan Berger and has accumulated 13 million views in 3 days. The impersonation, in my opinion, is spot on. The small nuances of his impersonation and the way he said “excuse me” was just great.
Evan Berger has also impersonated Obama and has a series where Obama and Trump talk to each other in random situations like while playing Jenga. Another one of my favorite impersonations on TikTok is this one impersonating how Trump would answer the question “What day is it?” by Austin Nasso. Sarah Cooper is also a famous TikTok Trump impersonator, known for her hilarious exaggerations.
In Other News
The TikTokBan:
On Friday, Trump said in an executive order: “There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that ByteDance Ltd., […] might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.” He has ordered TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to sell all of their U.S. assets. TikTok has not yet updated their blog page about this situation.
What will happen in the next 90 days is unknown, but it’s looking more likely that TikTok will be sold to an American company. Both Microsoft and Twitter were reported to be in talks with the company about a potential acquisition.
Check out my newsletter from last week to find out more about the TikTok ban.
That’s all for this week folks. Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and let me know if you think there’s an interesting TikTok trend I should be talking about!
See you next week!
A huge thank you to Nikitha Sattiraju for helping me edit this Newsletter!