Hier gibt es diesen Artikel auf Deutsch.
Some 170 million people in the U.S. use the social media platform TikTok. Nowhere else does content spread as quickly and no other algorithm is as aggressive as that used by TikTok. Every week, tens of thousands of users share videos that focus on the two U.S. presidential candidates, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. But how quickly do users end up inside filter bubbles? How different are the worldviews?
To gain a better understanding of that process, ZEIT ONLINE conducted an experiment in the four months leading up to the election. We installed U.S. TikTok accounts on two mobile phones, with the red phone designated as Republican, and the blue phone Democratic. Until shortly before the Tuesday election, we filled the accounts with content. Initially, we followed the most obvious names: The blue account followed Joe Biden, for example, along with the Democratic Party, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and MSNBC. The red account followed Donald Trump, the Republican Party, Fox News and the like. We then watched, liked and swiped everything that was suggested to us.
The parallel worlds began developing after just a single day: Even seemingly non-political videos – like people falling into the pool with their grills, or dog videos – were included less frequently or not at all in the timelines. The result is that we were presented with far more than 6,000 videos and were able to analyze them. Here, we are presenting a selection.
Since June 2024, we have been liking and following posts every day from Democrats (left) and Republicans (right) on two different mobile phones.
Because of the two-party system in the U.S., voters have always felt more loyal either to the Republican Party or to the Democratic Party. But the gap between the two camps has grown wider, and has begun to seem insurmountable in many cases. One frequently cited reason is the differing media consumption habits between the two groups. Whereas Democrats and Republicans used to at least watch the same evening news programs, the shared foundation of information has vanished in the last couple of decades. Today, facts find themselves competing with conspiracy theories and disinformation.
Our analysis shows that news events such as Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race, the assassination attempt on Donald Trump and the party conventions held by the Democrats and the Republicans have a strong influence on the number of videos posted. For that reason, we have divided our video selections into the seven sections that follow.
In both bubbles, the tone is raw. Insults like idiot, asshole or dumb, along with the frequent use of the word “fuck,” are common. Additional invectives appear in the red videos: Satan, devil, bad parenting, effeminate. But though the atmospheres that prevail in the two bubbles are both heated, there are differences. The tone in the red bubble tends to be more alarmist, with users discussing Trump’s claims that the last election was stolen along with concerns that the Democrats might install Harris in the White House in a “coup.” Kamala Harris is described as a “bitch,” as a communist, as stupid and disgusting. Conspiracy theories are frequently rooted in a Christian-religious context.
Users in the blue bubble cast aspersions at Trump. But they also blast Latinos, Blacks and women who vote for Trump as traitors. Many warn that a Trump victory could endanger democracy itself. Mental health is a far greater topic than in the red bubble.
Many users within the red bubble share clips from the debate showing Biden as daft and confused. Others voice criticism of Biden’s wife Jill for trying to cover up the president’s condition. Still others say Biden was being remote controlled by a “Deep State.” Clearly a lie.
The blue bubble is dominated by dejection. Users share the few clear responses that Biden produced, such as his reply to Trump’s accusations of election fraud. Others focus on Trump’s court case and exult about the fact that he was found guilty on 34 counts. Most users, though, focus on the danger of a second Trump presidency and their concerns for democracy.
In the initial discussions about a possible alternative Democratic presidential candidate, two names are frequently mentioned: Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, and Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky. Only very few users mention Kamala Harris. At this point, she is largely seen as being too unknown and unpopular.
Trump’s comment on “Black jobs,” in which he insinuated that migrants were taking jobs away from Blacks, inspires several Black users to film themselves at work. It quickly becomes a meme.
During this period, likely the most eventful in terms of news, it becomes clear just how quickly narratives solidify and spread. Within just one or two hours after the attack on Trump, the narrative that the would-be assassin was a Trump voter takes hold in the blue bubble. Additionally, some users accuse Trump of having staged the attack to guarantee election victory.
In the red bubble, users view Trump’s survival as God’s doing, a sign that Trump is the chosen one. At the same time, users spread the claim that Democrats planned the attack and that the Secret Service intentionally failed in their responsibility to protect the former president. During the Republican National Convention, these two narratives are perpetuated. Investigations have found no factual basis for either story.
Content on TikTok changes significantly when Biden announces his decision not to run for re-election and throws his support behind Harris. In the red bubble, the main focus is on fraud. Users argue that such a change so close to Election Day is nothing short of a coup. In the blue feed, meanwhile, a number of Kamala Harris memes begin making the rounds, such as the one of her dancing down a hallway. Along with her famous quote: “You didn’t fall from a coconut tree,” set to music. Users share mocking videos from the Republican Convention, such as the one of Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former lawyer, tripping and falling.
The reaction of Tim Walz’s son Gus to his father’s speech goes viral – as do the competing interpretations of this moment at the Democratic National Convention (DNC). In the red bubble, some users make fun of the son’s tears and unbridled emotion. When it comes out after the convention that Gus Walz is neurodiverse, most such videos are deleted.
The blue bubble continues to focus on these deleted videos, with users denouncing the attacks. “Gus Walz is also our son,” says one user, for example. In addition, many users share their experiences and opinions during the convention about abortion, a key Democratic issue.
In the red bubble, Harris’ official nomination as the Democratic presidential candidate puts her heritage at the center of conversation. Her mother is from India and her father comes from Jamaica. Black users in particular deny Harris her Black identity and ask questions like: “Why should I vote for her just because she is Black?” In the blue bubble, meanwhile, users emphasize how proud they are to be Black.
“They eat dogs, they eat cats” – Trump’s lie about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio – is a focus in both bubbles. The blue users share facts that reveal the lie for what it is, along with memes in which the quote “they’re eating the dogs …” is set to music. They argue that this misstep by Trump could cost him the election.
The red bubble, meanwhile, is filled with a number of videos from purported Springfield residents who confirm Trump’s lies. “They are here and they cut the heads off the animals. I feel unsafe here,” one woman says crying into the camera. Another issue discussed in the red feed is the claim that the earrings Harris wore during the debate were actually headphones through which she was being fed answers. That, too, is untrue.
Following the relatively dispassionate debate between the two vice presidential candidates J. D. Vance and Tim Walz, the reactions in both bubbles are reserved. Fewer memes and inflammatory clips are produced and the insults are less drastic.
In the blue bubble, users primarily focus on the fact that Vance refused to explicitly accept that Trump lost the 2020 election. In the red feed, users mocked Walz’s facial expressions, such as the way he looks into the camera with bulging eyes. Many decide that Walz can’t be trusted because of his incorrect claims regarding a trip to Hong Kong in spring 1989.
Hurricanes Milton and Helene are quickly integrated into the U.S. election campaign. In this period, it becomes clear just how differently the two bubbles view and interpret a given event. The blue bubble discusses the hurricane primarily through the lens of climate change and the provision of emergency aid. Users criticize Trump’s lies in which he claims that Biden’s administration spent the money necessary for emergency aid on “illegal immigrants.” The most common terms used in such critiques: “fuck you!”
In the red bubble, users don’t see the widespread destruction caused by the hurricanes as a result of natural causes, but as the work of the Democrats. In many videos, a false narrative quickly becomes entrenched: Lasers are responsible for hurricanes, not climate change. Trump’s lies about the purported lack of aid coming from the U.S. government are widely discussed. The tone seems significantly darker than in previous months. “Our world is falling apart,” writes one user.
Donald Trump’s appearance onboard a garbage truck in the final days of the U.S. campaign is one of the three stories dominating political TikTok. The “garbage debate” began with a racist comment by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe during a Trump campaign event. Hinchcliffe described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage,” a comment that led Joe Biden to make the heavily criticized statement: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
It is a misstep reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s gaffe during the 2016 campaign when she blasted Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables.” Most of those in the red feed see Biden’s comment as an attack on Trump voters. “I was called garbage because I support Donald Trump,” says one angry user into his camera. In the blue bubble, by contrast, there are a number of competing views. Joe Biden has stuttered since childhood, and he is famous for his verbal slip-ups.
The second major topic is the election itself: Users in both bubbles are filming themselves turning in their ballots in early voting. Some have tears in their eyes when saying just how important this election is to them. And then there is the biggest question of them all: Who is going to win? Many self-proclaimed analysts insert a map of the U.S. into their clips and claim to be able to prove why Donald Trump or Kamala Harris is definitely going to win. The truth, though, is that that the two candidates are in a dead heat. And no matter how it ends up, this election will be an historical one.