TikTok’s political landscape: Examining echo chambers and political expression dynamics

Abstract

Using a comprehensive dataset of over 160,000 public TikTok accounts and more than 16 million videos, this study indicates a notable increase in political TikTok video content from 2019 to 2023, with a peak around the 2020 US presidential election. The network analysis reveals distinct clusters of politically homogeneous networks or “political echo chambers” where users were exposed to attitude-consistent political TikTok content. Furthermore, through digital trace data, we found that users with strong political views and positive social feedback are more likely to share their political opinions on the platform. This research emphasizes TikTok’s growing importance as a hub for political engagement, as well as its potential polarization effects. The open-source datasets and methodological tools developed in this study offer valuable resources for future research on TikTok’s role in political communication.