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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

Iran Reports 201 Dead, 747 Injured After U.S. and Israeli Strikes

The Iranian Red Crescent Society reported Sunday night (local time) that at least 201 people were killed and 747 injured following attacks carried out by Israel and the United States against the Islamic Republic.

A spokesperson for the humanitarian organization said more than 220 rescue teams have been deployed across affected areas and that relief operations are continuing without interruption. The official highlighted the difficulty of treating the large number of wounded and the urgent need for additional resources in impacted provinces.

Out of Iran’s 31 provinces, 24 have reported damage, according to a statement carried by the Isna news agency. This marks the first overall casualty toll released by Iranian state-affiliated media since the launch of the offensive.

Among the dead are 85 schoolgirls from a school in the southern city of Minab, according to the country’s judiciary. “The number of martyrs at the Minab girls’ school has risen to 85,” the local prosecutor’s office said, as quoted by the judiciary’s website, Mizan Online.

Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian described the attack as a “savagery” that “constitutes a new black page in the record of countless crimes committed by the aggressors.”

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Meanwhile, the international community continues to monitor the situation closely amid concerns about possible further reprisals and the broader impact on Middle East stability, energy markets, and global security.

AFP noted that it was unable to independently verify the casualty figures or the circumstances surrounding the events.

International

Pope Leo XIV Urges End to ‘Spiral of Violence’ in Middle East

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday called for an end to the “spiral of violence” in the Middle East, following military strikes by the United States and Israel against Iran and subsequent retaliatory bombardments in the region.

“Faced with the possibility of a tragedy of enormous proportions, I urge the parties involved to assume their moral responsibility and stop the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” the pontiff told the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

Speaking during the Angelus prayer, the U.S.-born pope said stability and peace cannot be achieved through threats or weapons. “Stability and peace are not built with reciprocal threats or with arms that sow destruction, suffering and death, but only through reasonable, sincere and responsible dialogue,” he declared.

The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics also called for diplomacy to “regain its role” amid escalating tensions.

In addition, the pope urged Afghanistan and Pakistan to urgently resume dialogue after several days of clashes between the two countries.

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International

Security Council to Hold Emergency Meeting on Middle East Crisis

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Saturday condemned the “military escalation in the Middle East” following attacks by the United States and Israel against Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory strikes, just hours before an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council.

“I call for the immediate cessation of hostilities and de-escalation,” Guterres said in a statement.

The Security Council is scheduled to meet on Saturday at 21:00 GMT (4:00 p.m. in New York) to address “the situation in the Middle East,” the United Nations announced.

The meeting, during which Guterres will deliver remarks, was convened at the request of France, Bahrain, Colombia, Russia and China, according to a diplomatic source.