TikTok, one of the most popular social media platforms, is not only used for entertainment. It is also one of the destinations for some to check on the latest news and trending topics.
In the United Kingdom alone, about 7% of adults and teenagers use the platform as a new source as of 2022, compared to 1% in 2020, according to Ofcom.
Since its popularity is skyrocketing, experts warn people to check the sources before believing anything.
Verifying Information on TikTok
According to The Wall Street Journal, the trend Ofcom saw in its recent survey that TikTok's growing presence in the digital world shows how quickly the app became the go-to source for information and entertainment.
In the United States, for example, it was estimated that 40% of Gen Z, or people born from 1997 to 2012, use either TikTok or Instagram for their daily search to find things like where to go, where to eat, and more instead of Google Search and Google Maps.
Even though TikTok has also become the go-to for news in the U.K, it is still only the sixth most popular destination among those aged 16 to 24 years old, where it is used by 27% of the demographic.
BBC website and app is still the popular site to check for news, which is used by 29% of people in the demographic.
The fourth destination among people ages 16 to 24 years old for news is Twitter which is used by 35% of people in the demographic, then news TV channel BBC One, which is used by 36%, followed by Facebook which is used by 40% and Instagram which is used 46% of people in the demographic.
Meanwhile, among 12 to 15-year-olds, the lean toward social media for information is much greater. The top three digital news sources for this group of people are Instagram, which is used by 29% of them, and YouTube and TikTok, which are used by 28%.
However, these news sources are still outpaced by teenagers talking to their family, which 65% of them said they do, and watching TV, which 59% of them do, according to The Verge.
Yih-Choung Teh, the group director of strategy and research of Ofcom said in a press statement that teenagers today are unlikely to pick up a newspaper or tune into TV news as they prefer to keep up-to-date by going through TikTok and their other social media platforms.
Teh added that while young people find news on social media less reliable, they still rate the services more highly for serving up a range of opinions on the daily stories compared to newspapers and news on TV.
This could be a worrying trend for some, given TikTok's reputation as a source of disinformation.
However, users seem to be somewhat aware of this issue, with Ofcom noting that social media platforms continue to score worse than rival news sources on attributes like trust, with two-thirds of social media websites saying that they do not trust them for news.
Verifying News on Tiktok
To check if the news you see on TikTok is real, you need to review who posted it. If they are verified, and they post screenshots of their sources, then there is a high chance that their news is real, according to Dazed Digital.
You can also do a reverse Google Image search to see if what they've posted is real or stolen from other sources.
Related Article: TikTok to Add Labels on its Platform for Selected 'State-Controlled' Media, Suspends Livestreaming and New Content
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Written by Sophie Webster
