• by Colin Kirkland , 7 hours ago

Consumers between the ages of 18 and 29 in the U.S. are using TikTok more than any other social-media platform -- overtaking competing platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram for the first time, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center.

The collected data shows that 43% of these younger social-media users consumed news regularly on TikTok, while 41% found their news on YouTube and Facebook and 40% did so on Instagram. Only 21% turned to X for news, whereas 18% used Reddit for news consumption.

Compared to Pew’s 2023-24 findings, this is the first year that TikTok has become the top choice for news consumption by Gen-Z social-media users.

Last year, YouTube and Instagram tied for the leading social news platform among 18- to-29-year-olds in the U.S., while Instagram beat out YouTube and Facebook by one percentage point in 2023.

While news consumption has trended upward for these major apps over the past three years, TikTok shows the most dramatic increase. It leaped from 32% in 2023 to 41% in 2025, highlighting the rising popularity of non-traditional creator-made news coverage on the platform. 

Major news outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC and NPR have adopted the video-sharing platform, posting short-form video content for younger users, but independent creators are more popular among Gen-Z users looking for news coverage.

Based on Pew’s findings, news consumers in this cohort want regular short-form news content that feels organic, not over-produced. One leading news-centric account, @UnderTheNewsDesk, led by creator V Spehar, has almost 4 million followers on TikTok and 1 million on Instagram. 

Furthermore, before his death in September, conservative news personality Charlie Kirk had over 7 million followers on TikTok. 

Compared to news websites (60%) and email newsletters (28%), the vast majority of 18- to-29-year-old news consumers in the U.S. (76%) prefer to get their news from social media, according to the report.

To help news creators perform on the platform, TikTok has rolled out various tools over the past year -- including a footnotes feature designed to provide factual clarity to creators’ videos.

However, although TikTok has implemented fact-checking precautions such as partnerships with independent fact-checkers across 130 markets, AI-generated content has become more prevalent on the platform. This has led to mounting concern over the spread of harmful misinformation and propaganda in news reportage.

This week, for example, Poland urged the European Commission to investigate TikTok for hosting AI-generated content calling for Poland to withdraw from the EU.