PETALING JAYA: Cognisant of the impact of the youth vote, general election candidates have flocked to TikTok to appeal to digital natives, especially young Malaysians aged 18 to 29.
Commonly referred to as “Gen Z”, this group makes up six million, or 28%, of eligible voters.
Although mostly known for its predominantly entertainment-based content, TikTok has quickly emerged to be the platform of choice to reach a younger audience.
Single name monikers once reserved for pop stars and athletes like Madonna and Ronaldo are now represented online by the likes of Muda president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli.
All three have leveraged on TikTok to access a new massive audience, and if the millions of views of their content are any indication, their messages are clearly getting across.
While all social media content is easy to access and share, Toff Rada, TikTok’s head of public policy for Malaysia, said “the opportunity for bad actors to alter or outright spread misinformation is still a credible threat.”
ByteDance is the China-based company behind TikTok.
TikTok is proactively moving towards providing the tools necessary to both manage and reduce the spread of misinformation through their recently launched #BeliaSediaUndi campaign.
It is an initiative to empower users, focusing on first time and youth voters, and proactively providing the tools necessary to access accurate information while managing and reducing the spread of misinformation.
Their efforts to battle misinformation include providing a global best practices standard in an effort to reduce the spread of indecent, false (except satire/comedy), incomplete, or misleading content and the mandatory disclosure of any form of third party sponsorship.
Aira Azhari, senior manager at the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) democracy and governance unit said TikTok was an avenue to channel the passion and causes of youths into encouraging them to vote.
Amir Fareed Rahim, strategy director at KRA Group, said a potentially large number of “fence-sitters” among young voters cared about integrity and the environment. Messages revolving around these would resonate with them, he added.
He said TikTok was where snappy and valuable messages condensed into short clips had proven to be extremely impactful in reaching young voters concerned about education and job prospects, and meeting their need to seek out candidates who were best for them.
