Social media is something our generation has grown up with, a fact that obstructs our ability to realize how new and unexplored it truly is. There are many aspects of social media platforms that make me wary of them, everything from how our algorithms only show us what we want to see to the fact that misinformation runs rampant across them.
My first thought when Kamala Harris began utilizing social media in her 2024 presidential campaign was that it was incredibly smart to focus on connecting with Gen Z and securing the youth vote. Her team’s TikTok page, Kamala HQ (formerly Biden HQ for the previous administration), used popular TikTok sounds including songs such as “360” by Charli XCX, “Femininonion” by Chappell Roan, and “it boy” by bbno$ in their videos; some layered with audios of her viral quotes. The page would also post videos of Harris doing TikTok dances and trends that went viral and became trends in and of themselves.
Harris debuted her own, official TikTok account on July 24, 2024, during her rising presidential campaign, a stark contrast to former president Joe Biden who never had his own account. In the first video she posted, Harris said that she had “heard that recently I’ve been on the For You Page, so I thought I’d get on here myself.”
There is something to be said for her connecting to the younger generation; the strategy motivated many Gen Z voters and made the campaign an experience that created a sense of unity among democratic voters.
I never saw this as an issue while Harris’ campaign was at its height, but I did notice it the moment she lost the election. While the TikTok algorithm pushed videos from Kamala HQ and those of democratic voters to my For You Page, it did the opposite for Trump’s supporters. Harris’ supporters only ever saw videos of other people who were voting for her, which led to a gross misconception that she would win the popular vote.
Both sides saw what they wanted to believe, and that was that.
The Tiktok algorithm itself drives the rampant spread of misinformation across the app simply because of what it will and will not show individuals. In terms of politics, it enforces an extreme nationalistic partisan divide between political parties and drives an intense “all or nothing” view that is adopted by both republicans and democrats in opposing lights.
The most problematic aspect of this situation is that politicians’ social media pages rarely focus on their policies; they instead give into the algorithm—they only post things that the internet wants to see.
The White House made an official TikTok account in August 2025, and it has majorly been posting clips of President Trump to trending songs, similar to the way Kamala HQ utilized the app in the months leading up to the 2024 presidential election. Trump has also frequently posted photos and videos generated by AI (which is insanely dangerous for so many reasons) on TikTok and on X, formerly Twitter, and is known for tweeting ranting paragraphs at odd hours of the day and night with seemingly little supervision or management over his account.
The use of trends and popular music is strategic in connecting to the younger generations that are active on TikTok, but it creates a culture of many young voters having no real reason for giving their votes or support to a certain candidate other than the fact that they know them as “the funny guy on TikTok”; or having vague understandings of their policies but not putting in the further research outside of social media.
Regardless, social media sites are some of the prime locations from which Gen Z has grown up getting their news. According to The Pew Center, 43% of adults under 30 report that they regularly get news from TikTok as well.
This leads to a kind of double-edged sword, because while it is important for politicians to adjust to the modern world—and a big part of that right now is social media—it is important to use it in a way that informs the people, not one that blinds them.
The nice thing about social media is that it allows for direct communication with people all over the world. But, this also allows for misinformation to spread because of the nonexistent time-frame between hitting post and the video being available to the public. Any slipup or mistake is permanent, and if these statements are coming from politicians or news sources—organizations that are typically known for being trustworthy—then it’s easy to believe what they say without additional proof.
One could argue that politicians posting on social media makes them more relatable and accessible to the general public, which is definitely a positive way social media can affect politics. There have been many complaints in recent years that politicians are increasingly becoming out of touch with the general population, so it’s promising that there are some people looking to bridge that gap. Yet, accompanied by all of the apparent flaws in the system, it is obvious that many aspects of politicians’ online presence brings about more harm than good, both in cases where this is intended and not.
Blame cannot be placed on any one person in this situation, and what is clear is that politicians are not just going to log off of social media all together. It is vital that they consider their audiences and the impact they can have, but it is also important that we, as voters and citizens of the United States, are careful with how we consume news and media, as well as with the ways social media tends to idolize politicians without the required context.
