TikTok Tricked Trump

Utilizing social media to amplify an organization or movement is not a new concept. But the speed at which social media moves and the amount of uses has drastically increased. The summer of 2020 is referred to as the summer of activism, “we have these social uprisings and I think that one thing I don’t really know if people realize that the pandemic is doing is — it is revealing all of the social cracks in our country,” (Rosenblatt, 2020).

Online activism took on all kinds of issues during the summer of 2020, from Black Lives Matter protests, climate change and politics. Teenagers, who many aren’t old enough to vote, took to TikTok to come together and affect attendance at a Donald Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

During class this week we discussed the K-pop fandoms taking on racist hashtags, flooding them with positive messages to drown out the hatred. Well, once again K-pop fans showed out with other TikTok users by reserving tickets to President Trump’s rally with no intention on attending. “The younger generation deserves some credit for using a new tool for outreach and engagement,” (Rosenblatt, 2020).

“It actually doesn’t matter so much if it messed up the rally. It matters if it got some young people who wouldn’t have otherwise thought about this presidential election to think about it and to think about the implications,” (Rosenblatt, 2020).

Rosenblatt, K. (2020, September 26). A summer of digital protest: How 2020 became the summer of activism both online and offline. NBCNews.com. Retrieved October 31, 2021, from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/summer-digital-protest-how-2020-became-summer-activism-both-online-n1241001.