Why this isn’t Britain’s TikTok election

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This has already been the year of the TikTok election. In Pakistan the social-media app rallied rural youth to support Imran Khan, an imprisoned former prime minister. In Indonesia Prabowo Subianto, a strongman with a dodgy human-rights record, won the internet—and the presidency—with his dad-dancing. In France Jordan Bardella, a slick 28-year-old at the head of the party list for National Rally, a hard-right party, used TikTok to smooth a path to victory in the European parliamentary elections on June 9th.

More than three weeks into the general-election campaign, the platform is not having the same sort of impact on British politics. That is not for lack of engagement. Some 65% of 18- to 24-year-olds and 38% of 25- to 34-year-olds have seen something about the election on TikTok in recent weeks, according to a survey for The Economist by WeThink, a polling firm. But the parties themselves have not put much weight on TikTok: Labour, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats opened their accounts only after Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, announced the election. “Highlights” to date include a meme from the Labour Party about the Conservatives’ plans for national service and Nigel Farage, a right-wing politician, posing with a milkshake after being soaked by a protester’s beverage.