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

Marco Rubio warns Venezuela against military action against Guyana

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Venezuela on Thursday that a military attack on Guyana would be “a big mistake” and “a very bad day for them,” expressing his support for Georgetown in its territorial dispute with Caracas.

“It would be a very bad day for the Venezuelan regime if they attacked Guyana or ExxonMobil. It would be a very bad day, a very bad week for them, and it would not end well,” Rubio emphasized during a press conference in Georgetown alongside Guyanese President Irfaan Ali.

International

Ecuador oil spill worsens as containment dam collapses

The collapse of a containment dam holding back part of the 25,000+ barrels of oil spilled from a pipeline rupture nearly two weeks ago has worsened the environmental crisis in northwestern Ecuador, contaminating rivers and Pacific beaches.

The Ecuadorian government attributed the March 13 pipeline rupture—which led to the spill of 25,116 barrels of crude—to an act of sabotage. The spill affected three rivers and disrupted water supplies for several communities, according to authorities.

On Tuesday, due to heavy rains that have been falling since January, a containment dam on the Caple River collapsed. The Caple connects to other waterways in Esmeraldas Province, a coastal region bordering Colombia, state-owned Petroecuador said in a statement on Wednesday.

Seven containment barriers were installed in the Viche River, where crews worked to remove oil-contaminated debris. Additional absorbent materials were deployed in Caple, Viche, and Esmeraldas Rivers, which flow into the Pacific Ocean.

Authorities are also working to protect a wildlife refuge home to more than 250 species, including otters, howler monkeys, armadillos, frigatebirds, and pelicans.

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“This has been a total disaster,” said Ronald Ruiz, a leader in the Cube community, where the dam was located. He explained that the harsh winter rains caused river levels to rise, bringing debris that broke the containment barriersthat were holding the accumulated oil for extraction.

International

Federal court blocks Trump’s use of Enemy Alien Act for deportations

A federal appeals court upheld the block on former President Donald Trump’s use of the Enemy Alien Act on Wednesday, preventing him from using the law to expedite deportations of alleged members of the transnational criminal group Tren de Aragua.

With a 2-1 ruling, a panel from the Washington, D.C. Court of Appeals affirmed previous decisions by two lower court judges, maintaining the legal standoff between the White House and the judiciary.

On March 14, Trump invoked the 1798 Enemy Alien Act, a law traditionally used during wartime, to deport hundreds of Venezuelans whom he accused of belonging to Tren de Aragua, a criminal organization that originated in Venezuelan prisons.

The centuries-old law grants the president the power to detain, restrict, and expel foreign nationals from a country engaged in a “declared war” or an “invasion or predatory incursion” against the United States, following a public proclamation.