Algorithmic Bubble Burst: Pro-Harris TikTok on Election Day

In the weeks leading up to the US presidential election, Kacey Smith was feeling hopeful. Smith, who supported Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, says she knew it would be a close race between the Democratic nominee and Republican Donald Trump. But as she scrolled TikTok, she believed Harris would be victorious.

TikTok: A Filter Bubble Phenomenon

But Election Day approached, and she started to sense red flags in that positivity. She recalls TikTok serving her enthusiasm for reproductive choice with videos encouraging “women’s rights over gas prices” — implying, falsely, she thought, the choice was “either/or.” The rhetoric fit well inside her feed filled with strangers, but as a campaign strategy, it felt limiting and risky. “When I started seeing that messaging play out,” Smith says, “I started getting a little uneasy.” Her fears were borne out: Harris lost the popular vote and Electoral College and conceded the election to President-elect Trump.

The Impact of TikTok’s Algorithm

Filter bubbles like TikTok’s recommendation algorithm are a common point of concern among tech critics. The feeds can create the impression of a bespoke reality, letting users avoid things they find unpleasant — like the real people in Smith’s life who supported Trump. But while there are frequent complaints that algorithmic feeds could serve users misinformation or lull them into complacency, that’s not exactly what happened here. Voters like Smith understood the facts and the odds. They just underestimated how convincingly something like TikTok’s feed could build a world that didn’t quite exist — and in the wake of Harris’ defeat, they’re mourning its loss, too.

The Influence of Social Media on Politics

TikTok’s algorithm is hyperpersonalized, like a TV station calibrated exactly to a user’s brain. Its For You page serves content based on what you’ve previously watched or scrolled away from, and breaking out of these recommendations into other circles of the app isn’t easy. It’s a phenomenon political activists must figure out how to adapt to, says Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, president of progressive youth voter organization NextGen America.

The Role of Influencers in Shaping Perceptions

From the onset, the Harris campaign seemed to understand the power of these silos. On TikTok, where the Kamala HQ account has 5.7 million followers, an all-Gen Z team of staffers produced video after video that are, at times, indecipherable to the average person. If you saw a video stringing together clips of Harris saying things like “Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people” and “I have a Glock” with a gentle Aphex Twin song as the soundtrack, would you understand it as “hopecore”? The campaign bet that it didn’t really matter because the TikTok algorithm would carry it to people who did understand it. And at least to some extent, they were right.

The Influence of Social Media Influencers

Smith, like other TikTok users, knows that the platform recommends her content based on what she watches, saves, comments on, or likes. When pro-Trump content came across her For You page, Smith would purposely not engage and simply scroll away. 

The Dangers of Echo Chambers

“I don’t want my algorithm to think that I’m a Trump supporter, so I just want to scroll up and ignore it,” she says. 

The Importance of Diverse Perspectives

In hindsight, Smith wonders if that was the right thing to do or if a mix of different types of political content may have given her more insight into what the other side was saying, doing, and thinking. She likens it to being a liberal or progressive who consumes news from right-wing outlets like Breitbart or Fox News — not because you agree with the material, but because it’s helpful to know what messages are resonating with other types of voters. 

The Challenge of Understanding Social Media Algorithms

The echo chamber effect isn’t limited to politics: we don’t even really know what is popular on TikTok generally. Some of what we see may not be guided by our preferences at all. A report by The Washington Post found that male users — even liberal men — were more likely to be served Trump content on TikTok than women. According to data from Pew Research Center, about 4 in 10 young people regularly get news from TikTok.

The Complexities of Social Media Platforms

TikTok obviously isn’t the only filter bubble out there. Two years into Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, now called X, the platform has morphed into a right-wing echo chamber, with content boosted by Musk himself. While TikTok is simply (as far as we know) serving people things they like to sell ads, the slant on X was a deliberate electoral strategy that paid off handsomely for Musk.

The Impact of Algorithmic Manipulation