Recently, youth have been using social media to find unique ways to take political action. These teens have relied on the app TikTok, a video-sharing platform, to create and share their ideas. Many of these actions, which have garnered national attention, target the Trump re-election campaign.
The most widely recognized action of this movement was the mass reservation of tickets to the recent Trump rally in Tulsa, in an attempt to create the illusion that more people were going to attend. Tens of thousands of people reserved tickets for the rally without the intention of attending, creating false expectations for the Trump campaign and messing up data collection.
The turnout of the rally was expected to be roughly a million people based on ticket reservations, but only 6,200 people attended. This left entire sections of seats empty, a serious blow to expectations of the Trump campaign.
In addition to this, ticket reservations are used by campaigns to collect data on potential voters and supporters. The massive number of fake reservations effectively nullify this data because the campaign cannot tell the difference between people who were actually interested and the people falsely reserving seats.
In another attempt to impact the Trump campaign, TikTok users have begun an effort to use the negative effects of digital shopping cart abandonment on Trump’s online merchandise stores. This movement features people placing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Trump merchandise into their shopping cart. Instead of checking out, these people are leaving the tab open with these large amounts of merchandise sitting in their carts.
Digital shopping cart abandonment has many negative effects on the company that owns the store. It can ruin inventory and data collection leading to the unnecessary spending of campaign money to replenish merchandise. This is because there is no way to distinguish between real and fake shoppers.
The campaign has taken notice of this movement. Since this idea went viral, the store has significantly limited the quantity of items shoppers can put in their carts. Thus, making it harder for people who are participating in the trend to put hundreds of certain items in their cart.
However, this also negatively impacts people who are legitimately shopping for Trump merchandise. These changes makes the process of shopping less streamlined and make it harder for supporters to buy multiples of a product.
Beyond messing with Trump’s campaign, TikTok users have started movements to openly express dislike with the president online. This year, on June 14, Trump’s birthday, the hashtag “All Birthdays Matter” was trending on Twitter. This was at least partially inspired by a series of viral videos on TikTok.
Many of these videos encouraged people to take the day to support former President Obama instead. Other hashtags that trended that day were #obamaday and #happybirthdayobama.
A simple but massive effort has started on Trump’s Instagram, again partially fueled by viral TikToks. Teens have flooded the president’s instagram comments with negative remarks partnered with positive emojis, such sparkles, fairies, hearts and flowers.
One such message reads as “Build the wall✨🤩✨🤩✨🤩 around your house and don’t leave.” Another user wrote “You are like a cloud ☁️ When you disappear it’s a beautiful day☀️🌈🤩💗🌸⭐️🌟🌷🌼.” Messages like these comprise many of the top comments on Trump’s recent Instagram posts.
These TikTok campaigns have not been limited to targeting Trump. The platform has also been used to support the Black Lives Matter movement. Users have made viral videos with protest information that reaches people across the country.
Many videos have featured tips for protestors on how to handle different things that happen at protests. Information on how to handle and treat tear gas have been widely spread on the app, as well as, how to dress to best protect yourself.
Another TikTok trend that has gone viral in recent days is getting statues of Christopher Columbus across the U.S. listed as public bathrooms on Google Maps. Many people have gone to Google Maps and reviewed the statues and monuments as bathrooms. So many people did this that many are officially listed as public bathrooms with several one star reviews. This action follows a push to have statues of confederate leaders, slave owners and colonizers removed and replaced.
Yet another idea that has morphed from a viral TikTok is a petition to change the American flag and national anthem. The petition was made as a joke by a TikTok user to see if it could get enough signatures to receive serious coverage from mainstream news channels, namely Fox News. The petition currently has over one million signatures.
The description on the petition states “Our flag is outdated, doesn’t portray a good message, and frankly, is ugly looking. Generation Z has developed this prototype for our flag as we dive into our future of the U.S.A.”
The proposed flag has black instead of blue in honor of Black Lives Matter. A Manny icon has replaced the stars because he “symbolizes unity, justice, and being unproblematic.” Finally, the red stripes have been replaced by yellow.
The proposed national anthem is “Black and Yellow” by Wiz Khalifa.
“Generation Z is the future. We can do something great. Look at how easy it is to come together with our knowledge about social media. We just need to be coming together for the right things. Let’s change the world, one Manny at a time,” the petition states.
All these trends have unfolded within the past few weeks. As teens continue to recognize the power of social media, more political action is likely to come from that platform.
