17% of Americans are Using TikTok For News

The number of Americans, particularly younger adults, turning to TikTok for news has risen dramatically, according to a recent Pew Research Center study. In just four years, the share of U.S. adults regularly getting news on TikTok surged from 3% in 2020 to 17% in 2024. This makes TikTok the fastest-growing social media platform for news consumption in the U.S.

The trend is especially prominent among younger adults, with 39% of those under 30 now using TikTok as a regular news source. This is a stark contrast to older age groups: 19% of adults aged 30-49, 9% of those aged 50-64, and only 3% of those 65 and older rely on the platform for news.

The rise is even more pronounced among existing TikTok users who were already on the platform to begin with – with 52% of them now getting news from the platform, compared to just 22% in 2020. This makes TikTok a more popular news source than Facebook among its users, although it still trails behind X (formerly Twitter) in news consumption.

While TikTok is often criticized for its short-form video content being like “junk food” – alongside other criticisms related to things like its algorithm and the many dangerous “challenges” that users turn into trends – it’s undeniable that it’s an effective platform for spreading news. However, like any platform full of user-generated content, this growing reliance on TikTok for accurate news could put pressure on the platform to combat misinformation and