The attempted assassination of Donald Trump had a significant impact on public discourse surrounding his candidacy, with the Democratic Party suspending ad campaigns against him and politicians from across the political spectrum condemning the attack. Exclusive data shared with Forbes reveals that this surge in momentum was reflected on TikTok, one of the most important platforms for election-related conversations. In the week following the shooting, the number of posts about Trump on TikTok increased by nearly 800%, with views of videos skyrocketing from 1 billion to 6 billion. Interestingly, posts about Trump became more positive in the aftermath of the shooting, before declining once again as attention shifted to President Biden’s decision to step down and Vice President Kamala Harris’s entry into the race.
The data, provided by Zelf, a TikTok analytics firm, offers insights into the evolving political conversations on the platform. It tracks not only specific candidates but also political topics like inflation, immigration, and climate change. In the past 15 days, TikTok users have shown a preference for Biden’s stance on gun control over Trump’s, but prefer Trump’s position on inflation. The data also reveals that discussions about the fitness or unfitness of both Biden and Trump to serve as President have dominated conversations on TikTok. Negative sentiment about Biden being unfit to serve has weighed heavily on his overall perception, outshining positive content on other topics, according to Zelf’s findings.
Zelf gathers its data by analyzing the total number of videos on TikTok that touch on a specific topic, along with statistics like views, likes, and comments provided by TikTok itself. Despite restrictions on data gathering, Zelf is able to paint a comprehensive picture of TikTok discourse by focusing on videos with the most engagement. The company utilizes a Net Promoter Score (NPS) to measure the positivity or negativity of discourse around a given topic, revealing stark contrasts in how Harris, Biden, and Trump are perceived on the platform. This data not only provides valuable insights for campaign decision-making at all levels of government but also serves as a transparency tool for researchers and journalists seeking to understand how TikTok is shaping public discourse on various civic and political issues.
The importance of tracking TikTok discourse is highlighted by the decreasing availability of transparency tools provided by social media companies. Meta, Twitter, and TikTok have all limited access to information that would allow journalists, researchers, and the public to monitor online conversations effectively. The closure of tools like Crowdtangle and the Ads Transparency Center has made it more challenging to detect potential election interference and understand the impact of online discourse on public opinion. As TikTok continues to grow in popularity, reliable monitoring of conversations on the platform could offer valuable insights that complement traditional campaign analytics, ultimately shaping how politicians and issues are perceived by the public.
