London, United Kingdom
Analysis indicates that throughout the general election campaign, Nigel Farage has outperformed all other parties and candidates on TikTok, surpassing those politicians who are most well-liked by youth.
Videos uploaded on the Reform leader's account have had more views and interaction than those on any other candidate's official accounts and the main channels of other parties since the election was announced, according to a report published in the Guardian.
With Farage appearing on podcasts targeted at young voters and making videos of himself mouthing Eminem lyrics, Reform has recently chosen to focus its campaign on younger people.
Though recent research indicates that Farage's party is drawing more younger members than the Tories, the shift in support for Reform is greatest among older voters. According to a YouGov study conducted on June 18, Reform has 11% support among 18- to 24-year-olds, while Conservatives have 5%.
The Labour Party's official account has uploaded more videos than the Reform leader's throughout the campaign's four weeks, and it has also had the most amount of views and total involvement, as shown by the number of likes, shares, and comments.
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However, between May 22 and June 17, Farage's TikTok account posted the highest-performing content, greatly outperforming Labour on a per-video basis by 30% engagement and the Conservatives by more than double.
Guardian sought out TikTok accounts associated with major political parties and notable candidates across different affiliations, identifying approximately 500 profiles.
The report does not account for emotions it only records engagement. An account could be at the top of the list for both good and negative comments, but there is no evidence that this is the reason for Farage's success on the site.
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Furthermore, the data revealed that throughout the election campaign, candidates in a third of the seats in Great Britain were actively utilising TikTok.
Reform has the second-highest TikTok post count after Labour. More than 900 videos have been released by Labour candidates and the official Labour party account during the campaign, nearly three times as many as the Conservatives have.
In contrast to the Conservatives' 355 films, Reform UK and its candidates have uploaded over 800 videos within the same time frame.
(With inputs from agencies)