By Nsan Neji
NEW YORK (CONVERSEER) – TikTok has overtaken other social media competitors to become the preferred platform for young Americans to access news, according to Business Insider.
According to the latest survey data from the Pew Research Center, TikTok is currently the most popular news-based social media app among Americans aged 18 to 29. This surpasses the two most popular platforms in 2024—YouTube and Instagram.
It was noted that the 2025 survey results showed that 43% of young people said they regularly get their news from TikTok, while the percentages for YouTube and Facebook were both 41%, Instagram was 40%, and social platform X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit were 21% and 18%, respectively.
A Pew survey indicates that social media accounts for a significantly larger share of news consumption among 18- to 29-year-olds than other forms. 76% of this age group said they frequently or occasionally read news through social media, compared to 60% through news websites and 28% through email newsletters.
Among the young people who participated in the Pew survey, half of the respondents said they had some or a high level of trust in news content on social media, a level of trust that was roughly the same as their trust in information from national news organisations.
TikTok’s popularity as a primary source of news is rapidly rising. In 2023, only 32% of respondents said they regularly watched news through the video app.
It’s important to note that watching news on TikTok is not the same as watching video content from traditional media outlets like The Washington Post or NBC News. Young people also consider the commentary of news influencers, as well as user-generated videos related to current events (such as live footage from war zones or protest sites), as news.
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A group of independent news influencers emerged, focusing on current affairs reporting, including Philippe de Vrenko and Vitesse “V” Spelhar, the creator known for his “Under the Table” news account.
Some professional news organisations, including NPR’s Money Planet, have also begun to adopt a similar operating model—focusing their video content on specific creators to strengthen the trust connection with their audience. A Business Insider interview revealed that Generation Z social media users prefer news creators who can deliver information in a more authentic and relatable way.
Beyond news commentary, social media creators and podcasters have played an increasingly important role in news gathering in recent months. Politicians and government agencies are turning to podcasts and other formats to reach the public; content creators were a prominent presence at last year’s Democratic and Republican National Conventions. By 2025, many independent creators will have already applied to attend White House press briefings.
TikTok has launched several news-related features within the app, such as allowing media publishers to add article links to videos, and a fact-checking tool called “Footnotes,” similar to “community notes.” According to its official website, TikTok also partners with “independent fact-checking organisations in more than 130 markets worldwide to verify the authenticity of content on the platform.”
