As Trump looks to ban TikTok, it turns out there are many Pro-Trump creators on the platform

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If you’ve been anywhere on the internet over the past couple of weeks or so, you’ve certainly seen where Donald Trump is looking at possibly banning Tiktok in the US – citing security concerns. While there could be valid concerns about security, it’s also completely possible Trump is just big mad about Tiktokers trolling his Tulsa rally.

Regardless, the US government is looking at banning Tiktok or forcibly making the app’s parent company, ByteDance, sell the app. That said, a new study shows that Trump may want to reconsider the ban, as there are (apparently) a large amount of pro-Trump accounts on the platform spreading his message.

In a peer-reviewed study from researchers at the University of Munich, they found that when looking at hashtags like #Democrat and #Republican, pro-Republican posts were 60% higher than those of left-leaning views. The sample size isn’t the largest, with researchers only looking at 7,825 videos in total, but of those videos, there were approximately 2,000 videos supporting Trump and about 1,250 pro-Democrat videos. The stats come from looking at videos from October 2019 to February 2020.

And then you have the accounts like the Republican Hype House, which has almost 800,000 followers and spams viral content supporting Trump.

Juan Carlos Medina Serrano, one of the authors of the paper, tells Business Insider, “You see political communications [on TikTok] are often debates on duets. Older users are doing a video, then 14 or 16-year-olds are commenting on those videos and you see those cross-generational communications you wouldn’t normally have. At a Sunday dinner your 14-year-old nephew wouldn’t start talking politics with their uncle.”

Overall, with the small sample size, it’s a bit difficult to say that Tiktok users are more pro-Trump than not, but regardless, it’s an interesting look at the platform he is trying to ban.

What do you think? Surprised to see that Tiktok is home to so many Trump supporters? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• China says they have “plenty of ways to respond” if TikTok is forcibly sold to the USA
• Unlike Facebook, TikTok will reveal its algorithms in order to build trust in its policy enforcement
• You can now pin up to 3 comments on your Instagram posts – here’s how to do it
• Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t need a secret deal with Trump to operate within set parameters

Josiah Motley

Former KnowTechie editor.