International
Elections in the United States: the battle between Harris and Trump is also fought on TikTok
Reach as many young people as possible, publish content that goes viral or ridicule the opponent with memes. These are some of the ingredients that make up the strategy of the candidates for the presidency of the United States, the Democrat Kamala Harris and the Republican Donald Trump, who also compete to mobilize the votes of Generation Z through TikTok.
The current vice president of the country and the former president accumulate among the two more than 10 million followers on the Chinese social network, an effective electoral tool to capture the young vote on November 5 … Despite the demands and attempts to close the platform in the United States for considering that it represents a “threat” to national security and seriously affect the mental health of minors.
It is no coincidence that Trump and Kamala Harris have chosen this platform to reach the youngest: according to a study by the Pew Research Center, more and more Americans under the age of 30 receive news through TikTok and 52% of the users of the social network use it to get information.
In addition, it is estimated that more than 40 million young Americans of Generation Z (18 to 27 years old in 2024) will be able to vote in these elections.
In fact, the vote of this age group can be decisive in states such as Michigan, where the youth voter turnout rate was one of the highest in the country in 2022 and where they have one of the highest young voter registration rates in the United States.
What is your strategy? Who is behind their profiles?
Both aspirants compete with a personal profile (@kamalaharris, @realdonaldtrump) full of cuts and public appearances, to which they add another account focused on supporting the party’s electoral campaign (@teamtrump, @kamalahq) and based on the cultural language of the internet and where they ‘shot’ ingenious viral memes.
These accounts are run by a young team that plays with TikTok content and music trends to “attack” or ridicule their opponent and get their video to reach millions of people through humor.
For example, a basic image of dolphins with a background of color and fantasy with the message “Donald Trump’s 2025 project is a threat to our democracy” – accompanied by a Clean Bandit song, ‘Symphony’ -, obtained more than nine million views and more than 7,000 comments on @kamalahq’s profile.
Two days later, Donald Trump’s social media team responded by replicating the meme on his campaign profile with the following text: “Vote for Trump unless you want to be recruited to fight in World War III.” Result? Eight million views on @teamtrump’s profile.
In addition to memes, the candidates for the White House have used viral music on more than one occasion for their videos in rallies and have even created sounds from statements by their opponent. All this allows them to upload content with a humorous tone that can become a trend while ridiculing the rival.
Content creators enter campaign
In addition to memes and cuts with a humorous tone, both have chosen to involve content creators, influencers and celebrities in their campaigns to reach those people who do not consume politics regularly on TikTok and to whom, therefore, the application in principle does not recommend this type of video due to its hyper-personalized algorithm.
Trump used this strategy from the beginning on his personal account, which he used to promote his appearances in interviews and channels with streamers, YouTubers and tiktokers.
One of the first videos he uploaded to his profile was with the American content creator and boxer Logan Paul to promote their meeting on Paul’s YouTube channel. The promotional video of only six seconds was viewed by more than 160 million people.
Growth of your accounts in networks
Likewise, Donald Trump published another video on his profile two months ago dancing with American video game streamer Adin Ross, to celebrate the “success” of his video in ‘streaming’ with more than 2 million views on Ross’s YouTube channel.
Neither Paul nor Ross usually upload political content on their profiles, but they did publish their meetings with the former president and that content traveled to the mobile of millions of users on networks.
Harris, for his part, interviewed various content creators at the Democratic National Convention held in August in Chicago in order to appear on the profiles of influential people in cosmetics, lifestyle or humor, all of them far from politics, as was the case with @queencitytrends, with more than three million followers on TikTok.
In addition, Kamala Harris also opted for a well-known American comedy podcast called ‘CallHerDaddy’ with content creator Alexandra Cooper.
According to the social media analysis and statistics platform Social Blade, these strategies have had a positive impact on both the campaign accounts and the personal accounts of both candidates. For example, the vice president has gained more than 300,000 followers and the former president more than a million in the last 30 days on the campaign profiles of @teamtrump and @kamalahq.
The tightest elections of the last century
However, it remains to be seen whether this success on the social network translates into votes from Generation Z in the United States elections on November 5.
According to the latest forecast of the FiveThiryEight portal based on the average of surveys published nationally and in key states, Trump achieves a slight advantage over Harris and has a 52% chance of winning.
Two weeks ago, the forecast of the same portal gave Harris a 58% chance of defeating Trump in one of the tightest and tightest elections of the last century in the United States.
International
Meta Says Russia Seeks to Ban WhatsApp for Defending Secure Communication
U.S. tech giant Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, said that Russia is seeking to ban the messaging app because it “challenges government attempts to violate people’s right to secure communication.”
Russian authorities have encouraged citizens to switch to state-backed applications, and in August they already blocked WhatsApp’s calling feature.
On Friday, the communications regulator Roskomnadzor claimed that the platform was being used to “organize and carry out terrorist acts in the country, recruit perpetrators, and facilitate fraud and other crimes.”
“If the messaging service does not comply with Russian law, it will be completely blocked,” the regulator warned.
WhatsApp remains one of Russia’s most widely used messaging services, alongside Telegram.
Moscow is pressuring both platforms to grant authorities access to user data upon request for investigations into fraud and activities the government labels as “terrorist.”
Human rights advocates fear the demand could be used to target critics of the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin, or the war in Ukraine.
International
Archbishop Wenski criticizes Trump’s deportation policies, calls for stronger push for reform
The Archbishop of Miami, Thomas Wenski, has called for increased pressure on the U.S. Congress to advance comprehensive immigration reform and criticized President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policies, arguing that they “do nothing to help.”
“We need to apply more pressure on Congress so lawmakers can make the necessary changes. It is also important for the Administration to listen to our voice. We do not want to be anyone’s enemy—we are Americans,” Wenski said in an interview with EFE.
The religious leader, who heads one of the dioceses with the largest Latino and Haitian populations in the United States, issued a call to defend the rights of migrants. He also emphasized that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has maintained a strong and public stance in favor of migrants for decades.
International
Trump relaunches diplomatic push to finalize U.S.-Backed peace plan for Ukraine War
U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that his diplomatic team will resume meetings with delegations from Russia and Ukraine in an effort to pressure both sides to accept the peace plan proposed by Washington to end the war in Ukraine.
As part of this new round of talks, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll will hold discussions with Ukrainian representatives to narrow differences on the remaining points of the agreement.
Trump also confirmed his intention to meet personally with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and with Putin, though he emphasized that such meetings will only take place “when the agreement is fully finalized or in its final stage.”
The president claimed that his administration has made “tremendous progress” toward resolving the conflict and reiterated that the war “never would have started” if he had been in the White House at the onset of the crisis.
The U.S.-backed peace plan consists of 28 points and has been revised following feedback from both sides. According to Trump, only “a few points of disagreement” remain under active discussion.
One of the most controversial aspects of the proposal is the suggestion that Ukraine cede parts of the Donbas region to Russia and limit the size of its armed forces. Kyiv is working closely with Washington to soften these clauses in search of an arrangement that does not compromise its sovereignty or security.
With this diplomatic push, Trump aims to solidify his role as the main mediator in the conflict and steer the war toward a political resolution after years of devastation, humanitarian crisis, and rising global geopolitical tensions.
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