More Americans than ever now get news on TikTok, Pew finds

One in five Americans say they regularly get news on TikTok, a dramatic uptick from just 3% in 2020, according to a Pew Research Center analysis published last week. “During that span, no social media platform we’ve studied has experienced faster growth in news consumption,” Pew researchers noted.

Pew’s findings are important for media outlets and independent journalists doubling down on vertical video. And, as the Trump administration closes in on a deal to create an American-owned version of TikTok that may censor content on some topics, it’s a reminder of the platform’s power over the news many Americans see.

TikTok’s growing prevalence as a source of news isn’t limited to young people. Older adults are also turning to it more frequently for news. In Pew’s survey, 43% of adults under 30 said they regularly get news on TikTok, up from 9% five years ago, while a quarter of adults between the ages of 30 and 49 also get news there regularly, compared to just 2% in 2020. (“It’s not just younger people making the shift,” Reuters’ first social video reporter, Tristan Werkmeister, told Nieman Lab this month.)

When the researchers focused only on adult TikTok users, they found that a greater proportion of the platform’s users turn to it regularly for news. “TikTok is now on par with several other social media sites — including X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Truth Social — in the share of its adult users who regularly get news there,” researchers wrote.

This analysis is based on Pew’s survey of 5,153 U.S. adults between August 18 and 24.

Read Pew’s full TikTok analysis here, and check out its new fact sheets about social media and news, the platforms Americans use for news, and podcasts and news.