Skip to content
Project 2025
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories
Texas Deadly Floods: Who Is To Blame for the Devastation?

Texas Deadly Floods: Who Is To Blame for the Devastation?

Why a College Degree No Longer Guarantees a Good Job

Why a College Degree No Longer Guarantees a Good Job

I Fought To Keep VOA Independent. Now It’s Gone.

I Fought To Keep VOA Independent. Now It’s Gone.

From Red vs. Blue to Common Sense: Solving Money in Politics Together

From Red vs. Blue to Common Sense: Solving Money in Politics Together

Project 2025 and the Assault on Immigrants

Project 2025 and the Assault on Immigrants

Has TikTok increasingly become a news source for Americans under age 30?

TikTok app logo
picture alliance/Getty Images
Tom Kertscher, Wisconsin Watch
By Tom Kertscher, Wisconsin WatchApr 08, 2024
Tom Kertscher, Wisconsin Watch
See More Writings by author

This fact brief was originally published by Wisconsin Watch. Read the original here. Fact briefs are published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network, and republished by The Fulcrum. Visit Gigafact to learn more.

Has TikTok increasingly become a news source for Americans under age 30?

Yes.

TikTok, the social media platform known for video-sharing, is used for news by an increasing number of Americans under age 30.

About 32% of U.S. adults age 18 to 29 regularly get news from TikTok, up from 9% in 2020, according to a Pew Research Center poll of U.S. adults done Sept. 25-Oct. 1, 2023.

Globally, 20% of 18- to 24-year-olds use TikTok for news, according to a June 2023 report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. That’s up from 15% a year earlier.

Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, who represents northeast Wisconsin, introduced legislation in December 2022 to ban TikTok in the U.S.

On March 11, 2024, the House of Representatives approved a different Gallagher-sponsored bill that would ban “foreign adversary-controlled” TikTok unless its Chinese owners gave up ownership the company.

TikTok said in March 2023 it has 150 million U.S. users.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

Pew Research Center More Americans are getting news on TikTok, bucking the trend seen on most other social media sites

Reuters Fewer people trust traditional media, more turn to TikTok for news, report says

U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher Gallagher, Rubio Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok

US Congress H.R.7521 - Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act

US Congress Summary: H.R.7521 — 118th Congress (2023-2024)

TikTok Celebrating our thriving community of 150 million Americans

Latest news

From Vision to Action: Remaking the World Through Social Entrepreneurship
Bridging & Common Ground

From Vision to Action: Remaking the World Through Social Entrepreneurship

Ten Things the Future Will Say We Got Wrong About AI
Media & Technology

Ten Things the Future Will Say We Got Wrong About AI

Read More

Just the Facts: Digital Services Tax
people sitting down near table with assorted laptop computers
Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

Just the Facts: Digital Services Tax

President Donald Trump said on Friday that he has ended trade talks with Canada and will soon announce a new tariff rate for that country, as stated in a Truth Social post.

The decision to end the months-long negotiations came after Canada announced a digital service tax (DST) that Trump called “a direct and blatant attack on our Country.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Entertainment Can Improve How Democrats and Republicans See Each Other

Since the development of American mass media culture in the mid-20th century, numerous examples of entertainment media have tried to improve attitudes towards those who have traditionally held little power.

Getty Images, skynesher

Entertainment Can Improve How Democrats and Republicans See Each Other

Entertainment has been used for decades to improve attitudes toward other groups, both in the U.S. and abroad. One can think of movies like Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, helping change attitudes toward Black Americans, or TV shows like Rosanne, helping humanize the White working class. Efforts internationally show that media can sometimes improve attitudes toward two groups concurrently.

Substantial research shows that Americans now hold overly negative views of those across the political spectrum. Let's now learn from decades of experience using entertainment to improve attitudes of those in other groups—but also from counter-examples that have reinforced stereotypes and whose techniques should generally be avoided—in order to improve attitudes toward fellow Americans across politics. This entertainment can allow Americans across the political spectrum to have more accurate views of each other while realizing that successful cross-ideological friendships and collaborations are possible.

Keep ReadingShow less
Congress Must Not Undermine State Efforts To Regulate AI Harms to Children
Congress Must Not Undermine State Efforts To Regulate AI Harms to Children
Getty Images, Dmytro Betsenko

Congress Must Not Undermine State Efforts To Regulate AI Harms to Children

A cornerstone of conservative philosophy is that policy decisions should generally be left to the states. Apparently, this does not apply when the topic is artificial intelligence (AI).

In the name of promoting innovation, and at the urging of the tech industry, Congress quietly included in a 1,000-page bill a single sentence that has the power to undermine efforts to protect against the dangers of unfettered AI development. The sentence imposes a ten-year ban on state regulation of AI, including prohibiting the enforcement of laws already on the books. This brazen approach crossed the line even for conservative U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who remarked, “We have no idea what AI will be capable of in the next 10 years, and giving it free rein and tying states' hands is potentially dangerous.” She’s right. And it is especially dangerous for children.

Keep ReadingShow less
Microphones, podcast set up, podcast studio.

Many people inside and outside of the podcasting world are working to use the medium as a way to promote democracy and civic engagement.

Getty Images, Sergey Mironov

Ben Rhodes on How Podcasts Can Strengthen Democracy

After the 2024 election was deemed the “podcast election,” many people inside and outside of the podcasting world were left wondering how to capitalize on the medium as a way to promote democracy and civic engagement to audiences who are either burned out by or distrustful of traditional or mainstream news sources.

The Democracy Group podcast network has been working through this question since its founding in 2020—long before presidential candidates appeared on some of the most popular podcasts to appeal to specific demographics. Our members recently met in Washington, D.C., for our first convening to learn from each other and from high-profile podcasters like Jessica Tarlov, host of Raging Moderates, and Ben Rhodes, host of Pod Save the World.

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2025