TikTok Is Becoming a Popular News Source for American Adults

(Bloomberg) — TikTok is becoming a regular news source for a growing number of Americans, including young adults, according to a new survey, a sign more people are turning to the video app for online debate about politics.

Most Read from Bloomberg

About 17% of US adults say they regularly get news from the site owned by China-based ByteDance Ltd. — a fivefold increase from 2020, according to survey data from Pew Research published Tuesday.

Young adults from ages 18 to 29 are the most likely to use TikTok for news, and Pew found that 39% of the people in that age group say they regularly get news from the app. That is up from 32% just a year ago. Almost 50% of those adults say they use the app to keep up with politics or political issues, Pew found in an earlier survey.

The increase is notable given TikTok’s standing in the US, where lawmakers are actively trying to ban the app for fear that its Chinese parent company could abuse user data or try and sway political opinions through the app’s feed. Some elected officials worry that TikTok’s ties to China could affect the app’s algorithm, which may subtly influence the content users see and shape Americans’ views on important issues.

TikTok has sued the US government to try and stop the ban or divestiture requirement. In a US Court of Appeals hearing on Monday, the US government repeated its argument that the app’s threat to national security outweighs free speech concerns. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Matthew Schettenhelm said the hearing went “poorly” for TikTok, and cut the company’s odds of stopping the ban to 30% from 70%. The government has set a January deadline for ByteDance to sell or divest its ownership stake in TikTok.

Another survey from Pew Research released earlier this month found that American support for a TikTok ban has decreased over the past 18 months.

The results released Tuesday were based upon a survey conducted from July 15 to Aug. 4 of more than 10,650 US adults. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 percentage points.