TikTok has removed a number of videos after a BBC investigation showed creators were posting anti-Trump material without disclosing that they were paid for by a marketing company.
“Bigtent Creative, an agency which grew out of Elizabeth Warren’s campaign in the Democratic primaries, had been funding posts on the platform. Smith Galer said that Bigtent-funded posts were a mixture of nonpartisan content encouraging people to register to vote, and some videos which explicitly encouraged people to vote against President Donald Trump.”
From watching the videos you would have no idea they were paid for or linked to any company.
The videos are made by popular creators and show trending dances or a skit or monologue, and are similar to the videos they usually post.
In one series of videos Bigtent Creative supported, a number of prominent TikTok accounts duetted with each other to promote a non-partisan voter registration link. But some of the users in this so-called “vote chain” included anti-Trump messages such as: “Trump is trying to ban TikTok again…can we please vote him out?”