This social network of short videos has served as a stage for political proselytism. More than 10 presidentials use it.
Political campaigning has been transformed in the digital age. In recent years in Colombia the presidential contest has moved from the massive interventions in public squares and the intense debates broadcast on television, to the publication of short and musicalized videos on the social network TikTok, with which the candidates aim to win the votes of young Internet users.
Dances, mimics, physical exercises and even videos with monkeys from the Amazon on their backs, have gone viral with candidates for the Presidency as protagonists. Facing the elections on May 29, more than 10 candidates have opted to focus their efforts and investment on propaganda and decided to migrate to the generation of “attractive and fun” digital content to publish on TikTok.
Rodolfo Hernández (252,000 followers), Gustavo Petro (18,200 followers), Alejandro Char (29,500 followers), Federico Gutiérrez (9,542 followers), Sergio Fajardo (1,930 followers), Enrique Peñalosa (1,350 followers), Alejandro Gaviria ( 2,800 followers), David Barguil (1,185 followers), Óscar Iván Zuluaga (1,000 followers), Juan Manuel Galán (872 followers) and Jorge Robledo (555 followers), the most recognized presidential candidates in the aforementioned social network.
Objective beyond the “like”
It is not fortuitous that more than 10 presidential candidates are active on TikTok during the election season. For Carolina María Horta Gaviria, professor at the UPB’s Faculty of Political Sciences, the candidates are not only looking to get “likes” on their videos, but also to mobilize votes on alternative platforms, as according to figures from the Superintendency of Industry and Comercio (SIC), that social network exceeds 12.4 million users residing in Colombia and of them only 1.9 million are minors, which represents regarding 10.5 million voters to be conquered.
“Beyond having an interest in the public, what we see is how politics is becoming a place to make a type of theater with stagings to convene and attract voters in networks. This shows that the prioritization of the programmatic content of the presidential campaigns is being put aside to bet more on the strategic in order to mobilize votes ”, explained the teacher.
For his part, Adolfo León Maya, professor at the Eafit University Department of Government and Political Sciences, questioned that this change in the campaign scenario might harm democratic decisions, since in these scenarios “funny” content proliferates above of the concrete proposals of aspiring to the Presidency.
“The proliferation of politics in media scenarios also reveals a certain weakness in the candidates in the exercise of public power. It is a sample of the displacement that the campaigns have had in the public square and the forums, to a digital platform. This should be of concern as to how it will influence the construction of citizens’ decision criteria, ”said Maya.
The other side of the aspirants
Beyond dedicating the limited time of their videos to explain their proposals or do electoral pedagogy, the presidential candidates use TikTok to show their most charismatic side with videos that seek to entertain. That is the case of Hernández when he recorded himself exercising at the age of 76; Gutiérrez when he appeared with a group of monkeys on his visit to the Amazon; and the dances that Char, Zuluaga, Petro and others have starred in.
“We might read this strategy between playfulness, false humor and the attempt to get familiar with the voters. What it indicates is that there are pre-candidates manufactured at the point of propaganda, but that they lack a programmatic content in their campaigns, ”Maya pointed out.
Along these lines, the academics warned that in addition to representing a historic change in the way of campaigning (see Parenthesis), networks such as TikTok can become a terrain in which candidates seek refuge from public debate, as is the case with Alejandro Char , who prefers to post videos on that platform instead of going to debates, since it was launched on November 16, 2021.
The truth is that this platform continues to consolidate itself as a digital window to try to achieve recognition in the absence of just over four months for the first presidential round, in which the candidates will be forced to get the “likes” to really be translate into votes
10,5
Millions of TikTok users residing in Colombia are of legal age and can vote this year.
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