ByteDance Ltd. is a Chinese internet technology company headquartered in Beijing and incorporated in the Cayman Islands.
Ariel Rebecca Martin, known professionally as Baby Ariel, is an American influencer who rose to fame after posting lip-syncing videos on the defunct video sharing app Musical.ly. She was recognized as one of the most influential people on the Internet by Time magazine in 2017, and she was featured on Forbes 2017 list of top entertainment influencers.
TikTok, whose mainland Chinese counterpart is Douyin, is a short-form video hosting service owned by ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 3 seconds to 10 minutes.
Rachell Marie Hofstetter, better known as Valkyrae, is an American live streamer and YouTuber. She is a co-owner of the gaming organization 100 Thieves and has been YouTube's most-watched female streamer since 2020.
Social media was used extensively in the 2020 United States presidential election. Both incumbent president Donald Trump and Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden's campaigns employed digital-first advertising strategies, prioritizing digital advertising over print advertising in the wake of the pandemic. Trump had previously utilized his Twitter account to reach his voters and make announcements, both during and after the 2016 election. The Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden also made use of social media networks to express his views and opinions on important events such as the Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the protests following the murder of George Floyd, and the controversial appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
Charli Grace D'Amelio is an American influencer. She was a competitive dancer for over a decade before starting her social media career in 2019, when she began posting dance videos on the video-sharing platform TikTok. She quickly amassed a large following and subsequently became the most-followed creator on the platform in March 2020 until she was surpassed by Khaby Lame in June 2022. With over 151 million followers, she is the second-most-followed-person on TikTok, as of 2024.
The Hype House is a collective of teenage TikTok personalities based in Moorpark, California, as well as the name of the mansion where some of the creators live. It is a collaborative content creation house, allowing the different influencers and content creators to make videos together easily.
Addison Rae Easterling is an American singer, songwriter, actress and dancer. Rae rose to fame on the video sharing app, TikTok. She amassed over 88 million followers, making her the fourth most-followed individual on the platform.
Avani Gregg is an American social media personality who first developed a following on TikTok. She plays Gemma in the web series Chicken Girls. She received the Shorty Award for TikToker of the Year in 2019, and was on the Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2020 in the social media category.
Denarie Bautista Taylor, known professionally as Bella Poarch, is an American social media personality and singer. On August 17, 2020, she created the most liked video on TikTok, in which she lip syncs to the song "M to the B" by British rapper Millie B. She is the most followed TikTok contributor from the Philippines. In May 2021, she released her debut single "Build a Bitch".
Abbie Richards is a misinformation educator and environmental activist whose conspiracy theory charts went viral on Twitter in 2020 and 2021.
There is evidence that TikTok has down-weighted the posts of topics deemed sensitive by the Chinese government and Chinese Communist Party. Topics alleged to have been censored by the platform include the Uyghur genocide, the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, the Sino-Indian border dispute, foreign political leaders, LGBTQ+ people, disabled people, and Black people. TikTok has also removed or omitted information from its services to comply with company policies, legal demands, and government censorship laws. TikTok's responses to claims of censorship have varied, responding that the platform was attempting to protect users from bullying, arguing that certain instances were the result of human error, and stating that such incidents were the result of algorithmic mistakes.
Khabane "Khaby" Lame is a Senegalese-born Italian influencer. He is known for his TikTok videos, in which he silently mocks overly complicated "life hack" videos. In 2022, he was listed in Fortune's 40 Under 40 and Forbes' 30 Under 30. He also served as a juror on the 2023 edition of the television show Italia's Got Talent. As of 2024, he is the most-followed user on TikTok.
YouTube Shorts is the short-form section of the American video-sharing app YouTube. Shorts focuses on vertical videos at a maximum length of 60 seconds and various features for user interaction. As of January 2022, Shorts have collectively earned over 5 trillion views since the platform was made available to the public on July 13, 2021, which include video views that pre-date the YouTube Shorts feature. Creators earn money based on the amount of views they receive, or through ad revenue. The increased popularity of YouTube Shorts has led to concerns about addiction for teenagers.
Libs of TikTok is a handle for various far-right and anti-LGBT social-media accounts operated by Chaya Raichik, a former real estate agent. Raichik uses the accounts to repost content created by left-wing and LGBT people on TikTok, and on other social-media platforms, often with hostile, mocking, or derogatory commentary. The accounts promote hate speech and transphobia, and spread false claims, especially relating to medical care of transgender children. The Twitter account, also known by the handle @LibsofTikTok, has nearly 3 million followers as of February 2024 and has become influential among American conservatives and the political right. Libs of TikTok's social-media accounts have received several temporary suspensions and a permanent suspension from TikTok.
Elyse Myers is an American social media influencer and comedian from Nebraska. She gained notoriety on TikTok with an account of her worst date during which she purchased 100 tacos.
Dylan Mulvaney is an American TikTok personality who has detailed her gender transition in daily videos since early 2022. In October 2022, Mulvaney spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House about transgender rights.
Melissa Ong, better known under her former TikTok username chunkysdead and nickname Mother Hen, is an American Internet influencer, TikToker, YouTuber, and former user experience designer. She worked at several technology companies before leaving her job to focus on making videos for the social network TikTok. Ong is best known for the "Step Chickens," a self-described online cult formed after Ong released a TikTok video in a chicken costume satirizing tropes in pornography. The Step Chickens are more akin to a cult of personality or fandom than a harmful or violent cult; their main activities include spamming the comments sections of other creators, changing their profile pictures to match a selfie taken by Ong, and conversing on an app rebranded for them by Ong's friend and former co-worker.
Katherine Grace "Katie" Feeney is an American social media personality with over 13M followers across TikTok, Youtube, Instagram and Snapchat. Her content primarily consists of sports, college life and lifestyle content. She also has served as the social media correspondent for the Washington Commanders since April 2022.
Jalaiah Harmon is an American dancer and content creator, who is credited for choreographing the Renegade Dance, one of the most popular dances on TikTok. She danced to the song, "Lottery" by K-Camp, an Atlanta-based rapper. The renegade dance incorporated viral dances include Woah and Wave.
