HPrisoners can be seen on video sprinting down metal stairs and into a huge concrete building, pinned to the back of their heads. As dramatic music plays, the camera pans over thousands of neatly lined up men wearing only white pants, shaved heads and tattooed bodies. High-resolution close-ups show them with their foreheads pressed against their knees, their eyes shining, before being chased away by armed guards.
The footage shows thousands of gang members being rounded up in a new “mega prison” in El Salvador. This is atypical for TikTok, the video-sharing app that first became popular among teenagers with its viral dance challenges. But two highly produced #GuerraContraLasPandillas (war on gangs) videos posted by El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele have been viewed 25 million times on the app since they were posted in the past two months. views and thousands of comments at least once. They expressed their admiration in more than a dozen languages. One user said, “I wish you were the president of the whole world,” and liked the comment 16,000 times.
Bukele's use of TikTok is part of a regional trend. While President Joe Biden and his European counterparts have distanced themselves from TikTok, blocking it from government equipment and considering an outright ban over national security concerns about Chinese ownership, Latin America… Heads of state are embracing this hugely popular platform more than ever. As of April 12, six of the world's top 10 people on TikTok are from Latin America. “Almost every leader in Latin America uses this app, and you can see the impact in the numbers,” said Tom, former head of digital media at the World Economic Forum, which tracks social media accounts of world leaders. says Matthias Lufkens. “They're not following the US precedent of banning TikTok. They're all in, [and] Embracing songs and memes is very unusual for a European politician.”
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Latin American heads of state have long been early adopters of new social media platforms. They are now using TikTok as a less formal and more effective tool to convey all kinds of political messages. In Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro has used the platform to share bite-sized propaganda about the alleged successes of his socialist policies, along with dozens of videos of himself dancing salsa. In Ecuador, Argentina and Chile, presidents are using the app to provide followers with a behind-the-scenes look at government. In Brazil, former President Jair Bolsonaro and his successor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are at odds over opinions following the election campaign. Many leaders use the app to post short clips of their street addresses, interactions with the public, and travel, often to the tune of songs that are trending on the app.
While U.S. and European politicians have expressed concerns about the app, Latin American leaders don't see China as an adversary in the same way, said a senior at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensics Institute. says researcher and expert Ilia Puyosa. About social media and political conflict in Latin America. China has invested heavily in the continent over the past two decades and has developed close economic and security ties with most Latin American countries. It is South America's largest trading partner and an important source of financing and foreign direct investment. “They see China as a partner,” Puyosa said. “This is a way to reach places where there are people who don't trust the news and don't care about electoral politics.” In many Western countries, TikTok has been the subject of political suspicion. In Latin America, it is the basis of political strategy.
No one has done this more effectively than El Salvador's Boucle. With 5.6 million followers, he is the most popular head of state on the app, no small feat for the leader of a Central American country of 6.3 million people. The son of a wealthy businessman, Bukele began his career in public relations, working for his family's advertising agency. Since being elected in 2019 at the age of 35, he has used a number of clever tactics to manage his image and promote his policies, from experimenting with adopting Bitcoin as a national currency to declaring a state of emergency to crack down on national currencies. We have launched a digital strategy. A gang that has terrorized the country for decades. As a result, Bukele's approval rating remains at around 90%.
Experts say TikTok is a big part of the alternative media landscape Mr. Bukele has built since taking office, tightly controlling the information disseminated through TV shows, video streaming sites, social media and paid internet trolls, and often It is said that he is manipulating it. TikTok may be easier to manipulate than other social platforms, says a Mexican social media analyst whose analysis of Buqueque's profile found an “overwhelming” amount of manipulation to shape public opinion. Alberto Escorcia says: “A small number of operators can quickly inflate the statistics displayed by TikTok's recommendation algorithm.” (TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.)
This is not a new tactic in Latin America. Ecuador became an early pioneer of Twitter troll farms in 2013, when companies with ties to then-President Rafael Correa began monetizing Twitter trolls by hijacking trending topics. Since then, digital armies have become a lucrative business from Brazil to Mexico, especially around presidential elections. Digital staff who have worked on other Latin American campaigns, including former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, “helped advise Bukele in creating this large-scale communications strategy,” Escorcia said.
His colleagues across the continent are using the app in different ways. The drama of Brazil's contentious presidential election has given way to split-screen TikTok accounts, with Bolsonaro (5.3 million followers) and Lula (4.3 million followers) both very active in different ways. is active in During his three months in self-imposed exile in Florida, Bolsonaro released a series of videos set to emotional music that showed lines of his supporters waiting to shake hands and pose for photos. He has also spoken at right-wing events in the region, touting his accomplishments and in some cases vowing to return to his homeland. However, most of the videos he posts are lighthearted and human videos of him getting a haircut, making hot dogs in his suburban kitchen, or playing with his dog and children.
“Bolsonaro was the first Brazilian president to adopt a 100% online communication strategy,” says Karina di Nubira, a lawyer and researcher at the University of Valladolid in Spain. According to Di Nuvira, he is using TikTok as the “soundtrack” for his comeback. “He is creating a conspiracy in which a heroic, charismatic, populist leader beloved by Brazilians loses an election in an unfair, coup-like, rigged manner, but no matter what It's a story of a hero who never abandons his people.'' His video of his return to Brazil on March 30 has been viewed almost 2 million times.
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Lula's account has been updated since taking office, showing him waving atop a Brazilian submarine, opening a clinic, showing off tropical produce and meeting with world leaders. He has frequently posted videos of himself in action. Many of them align with TikTok trends and popular songs, with one citing his “vibe” as “putting food on the tables of Brazilians” and “employment opportunities for all.” ing.
Across the border in northwestern Brazil, Venezuela's Maduro has posted more than 90 videos on TikTok this year alone. There are also short political sound bites set to music. In the office, he plays with the 360-degree camera and some of the president's antics include dancing. In a recent video with 3.4 million views, he orders his four golden retrievers to sit, only to have them suffocate. Venezuela, as shown through President Maduro's TikTok, is vibrant and prosperous, but the economy is in turmoil, hyperinflation is rampant, and large parts of the country struggle to access food and basic medicine. This is a far cry from the reality of the ongoing humanitarian crisis. “We must use the power of intelligence to win our daily battles,” President Maduro said in a speech last month. “Do you know how to win this? On TikTok.”
Other Latin American leaders are also using the app to promote their policies. Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso, who has 1.3 million followers, speaks directly to the camera to explain housing projects and the opening of a hospital. Colombian President Gustavo Petro's video consists primarily of clips of his speeches set to music and scenes of his daily activities. Chilean President Gabriel Borich has an account with 638,000 followers that shows him visiting disaster-hit areas and meeting with citizens, and he has a calm tone. Boric, who was elected president in 2021 at just 35 years old, “acts very seriously and firmly and speaks about his own policies in a very formal way,” Puyoza said. . “I don't think he needs to push himself. He's already cool.”
The adoption of TikTok by Latin American governments is an increasingly stark contrast to the United States and Europe, where leaders have traditionally been less enthusiastic about the platform. The U.S. government clearly recognizes its influence. Americans make up her TikTok audience, the largest in the world with 150 million users. When the Ukraine war broke out last year, the White House hosted a briefing with TikTok influencers, acknowledging the app as a major source of news and information. Biden's staff also plans to hire hundreds of TikTok creators as part of his expected 2024 re-election campaign's digital strategy.
But long-standing concerns about the app's data access and Chinese ownership have heightened in recent months. At a high-profile hearing in March, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that TikTok “screams national security concerns.” The app has since been banned from government terminals in the US, UK, Canada, the European Union, and a growing number of other European countries. Several European government officials, including the Czech government, the European Commission, and the Latvian foreign minister, deleted their accounts citing “security reasons.” The official account for No. 10 Downing Street in the UK has not posted since last summer, despite the account being opened under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
One exception is French President Emmanuel Macron, who opened his TikTok account in July 2020 and has amassed 4 million followers with upbeat videos of him speaking to the camera and responding to users' comments. . Still, France banned TikTok from government devices last month.
“There is currently a disconnect between the United States and Europe, with governments banning TikTok on government phones, and debates over national security, with governments saying they are pretty much at risk.” We haven’t yet dealt with the facts. It’s about reaching out to the population and the general public,” said Giore Craig, who oversees election research at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank that focuses on online disinformation. “Are you doing social media because you have to, or are you doing it because you understand why social media is important?”
For many Latin American leaders, the answer is clear and is already yielding results. In recent months, Bukele has started adding English subtitles to his videos in an effort to grow his fan base around the world and use the app to hit back at foreign critics. “Where did they get this sudden love for El Salvador?” he said in one TikTok, referring to human rights groups' concerns about the sprawling new prisons he highlighted in his video, and on-screen English. translated into . “Until recently, you couldn't find it on a map.”
