1157452

research-article20232023
SMSXXX10.1177/20563051231157452Social Media <span class="symbol" cstyle="Mathematical">+</span> SocietyLee and Abidin

Special Issue: TikTok and Social Movements

Social Media + Society

Introduction to the Special Issue of

January-March 2023: 1­–8
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DOI: 10.1177/20563051231157452
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Jin Lee and Crystal Abidin

Abstract
This Special Issue of “TikTok and Social Movements” emerges from an attempt to map out the landscape of social movements
happening on TikTok, drawing from the online symposium “TikTok and Social Movements” hosted in September 2021 by
the TikTok Cultures Research Network, a research portal for interdisciplinary scholarship on TikTok cultures. The recent
growing popularity of TikTok has transformed the cultures and practices of social movements worldwide. Through the
platform’s participatory affordances, many users find meaningful ways to engage with the platform and its cultures, by leading
and participating in a variety of activist initiatives for global awareness, social change, and civic politics. Within this context,
this introduction to the Special Issue titled “TikTok and Social Movements” begins by thinking about how social media pop
cultures have served as a vehicle for mobilizing and engaging in social movements for social (in)justice and politics in the era
of social media. By situating TikTok, a nascent platform and culture of short video, within the ongoing discussion of digitally
mobilized movements and social justice, this introduction addresses several crucial points to consider when discussing
TikTok cultures and social movements that are happening or interrupted on the platform. These points are interrogated with
more details and cultural contexts in the five case studies and three expert commentaries in this Special Issue. Specifically, the
collection of papers interrogate how TikTok’s interactive and creative affordances have augmented and altered our cultures,
practices, politics, and power dynamics of engaging with publics for various beliefs and social agendas.

Keywords
TikTok, short video, social movements, social justice, social media

Introduction Many TikTok users have established cultures of “vernacu-

lar creativity” (Burgess, 2006) wherein “ordinary” cultural
The recent growing popularity of TikTok has transformed participation and practices “emerge from highly particular
the cultures and practices of social movements worldwide. and non-elite social contexts and communicative conven-
Despite several concerns regarding the app—mostly regard- tions” with digital technologies of storytelling (p. 206).
ing its weak security (Chae, 2020; Dziedzic, 2020), moral Through the platform’s participatory affordances, many
panics incited by malicious content on TikTok (Purwaningsih, users have found meaningful ways to engage with the plat-
2018), and a few countries’ (temporary) bans on the platform form and its cultures, by leading and participating in a vari-
as a result (e.g., India in 2020 and the United States in 2022 ety of activist initiatives for global awareness, social change,
for state devices; Zaveri, 2023)—TikTok has rapidly grown and civic politics. This includes Young TikTok users’ climate
as the “hottest app of 2021” (Jackson, 2021) and remains as activism (Hautea et al., 2021); growing anti-racist move-
the “most-downloaded app of 2022” globally (Koetsier, ments, such as the continuation of “Black Lives Matter” on
2023). Its interactive features (e.g., short video, voiceover, TikTok (Janfaza, 2020) and migrant workers’ call-outs of
meme template, background music, duet, greenscreen) and
popular genres (e.g., dance, comedy, challenges; see
Vizcaíno-Verdú & Abidin, 2022, for “TikTok challenges”) Internet Studies, Curtin University, Australia
have enriched social media cultures with creativity and
Corresponding Author:
helped users to engage with each other, with social issues, Jin Lee, Internet Studies, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA
and even with contentious issues like misinformation and 6845, Australia.
online toxicity with relative ease and casual fun. Email: [email protected]

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2 Social Media + Society

xenophobia in a host country (Kaur-Gill, 2022); and emerg- like protests; and second, the collective actions and outcomes
ing hashtag streams like #StopAsianHate in response to of mobilizing the public in digital spaces, like social media
increasing violence against Asians during the pandemic posting, and the immaterial labors of support, like watching
(Hanson, 2021); and #OkBoomer which details intergenera- and consuming advocacy messages on social networks
tional tensions and connections within society at large (Zeng (Diani, 1992, 2000; Tufekci, 2014; Van Laer & Van Aelst,
& Abidin, 2021). TikTok’s creative affordances powered by 2010). In other words, social movements are “online and
artificial intelligence (AI) technologies also facilitate the for- offline networks of (in)formal relationships between indi-
mulation and development of identity politics and cultures viduals, groups, and/or organizations, who share mutual
on the platform. Recent examples include Indian children’s interest or collective identities and mobilize various types of
creation of their vernacular digital cultures on TikTok against resources (e.g. affect, attention, action, material capital) on
parenteral surveillance (Sarwatay et al., 2022); LGBTQI+ the issues that they are advocating” (Abidin & Lee, 2022,
(lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and p. 16).
intersex) users’ use of various filters to advocate for diversity With easy access to the internet and the popularization of
(Simpson & Semaan, 2021); young users’ meme cultures as social media, we have observed how ordinary internet users
consciousness building work (Anderson & Keehn, 2020; take up the online space to develop social movements as col-
Literat & Kligler-Vilenchik, 2019; Zeng & Abidin, 2021); lective activism and protest, and as everyday politics and
and older generations’ collaborations with younger genera- advocacy. This is well captured in the rise of numerous social
tions (Hood, 2020). Its unique audiovisual memetic cultures movements across the globe since the early-2000s. Within
also provide a window for people in various fields to build the Asia Pacific region, where the efforts of the TikTok
their professional identity (Hartung et al., 2023) and to com- Cultures Research Network are concentrated, a few exam-
municate their knowledge with others in more playful man- ples include the South Korean candlelight vigils for social
ners (Southerton, 2021; Zeng et al., 2020). However, social justice that was initiated in the blogsphere in the 2000s (Kim
movements on TikTok are not always shaped for social jus- & Kim, 2009), the Arab Spring movements on Twitter for
tice actions, but may often also advocate for specific beliefs democracy in the early-2010s (Bruns et al., 2014), the
that mirror global politics, such as anti-vaccine movements, #MilkTeaAlliance hashtag activism promoting pro-democ-
the distribution of misinformation (Basch et al., 2021; racy across Southeast Asia (K. Lee, 2021), and Chinese peo-
Southerton & Clark, 2022), and far-right movements ple’s online protest against Xi’s strict zero-Covid policy and
(Weimann & Masri, 2020). surveillance on WeChat and Weibo (Gang, 2022).
The Special Issue emerges from an attempt to map out the Everyday politics at the micro level have also become
landscape of social movements happening on TikTok, draw- common, as evidenced in the burgeoning “identity politics”
ing from the online symposium “TikTok and Social trends in social media. It is popularly sighted that social
Movements” hosted in September 2021 by the TikTok media users showcase the uniqueness and individuality of
Cultures Research Network (n.d.). By showcasing five case their intersectional identities in their casual social media
studies on TikTok and social movements across different cul- posts of their lives, experiences, and thoughts (e.g., Bhandari
tures, politics, and languages, alongside three expert com- & Bimo, 2020; Dyer, 2017; Warfield et al., 2016). If identity
mentaries on TikTok methodologies and cultures, this Special is social performance (Goffman, 1959), ways to perform
Issue explores how TikTok as a nascent platform and culture identity in social media pop cultures are contingent upon the
has been a locus of contestation for social (in)justice and norms, cultures, and designs of media platforms and com-
politics. Specifically, the collection of papers interrogate munities (Dyer & Abidin, 2022). Thus, a myriad of move-
how TikTok’s interactive and creative affordances have aug- ments and politics in social media are the processes and
mented and altered ways of mobilizing and engaging with outcomes of negotiations between individual users; indus-
publics for various beliefs through the vehicle of social tries; media elements such as platform technologies; and
media pop cultures. environments such as algorithms, cultures, and economies.
These social movements quickly build up via the net-
Social Movements Through/in Social worked structure and culture of social media (Cammaerts,
2015; Diani, 2000; Papacharissi, 2015; see also boyd, 2010),
Media Pop Cultures fueled by various social actors. For example, influencers
Various terminologies have been interchangeably used to serve as “opinion leaders” of leading the flow of information
describe collective and networked actions for beliefs or (Martin & Sharma, 2022). Their roles as “nodes” at which
social change, including “activism” (Svirsky, 2010), “(civic) individuals gather and build bonds on social media, and as
advocacy” (Reid, 2000), “grassroots” (Payne et al., 2011), “mediators” of values circulating through media contents (J.
and “political participation” (Conge, 1988). Among these Lee & Abidin, 2022, p. 547), help social movement messages
terms, a “social movement” is an overarching concept that spread and (potential) participants get connected for collec-
generally encapsulates two broad practices: First, the prag- tive action. Media users also spread the flows by consuming,
matics and logistics of physical events in the public spaces sharing, and reproducing the original messages, often with
Lee and Abidin 3

their edits and interpretations added. The connections between concepts of fairness and correctness are not indicative of the
the users, including their (in)direct interactions, the intima- same idea, but rather, are differently operationalized in com-
cies, and other affective registers yielded, function as momen- munities, dependent on community norms, values, and com-
tums of the movements by forming “affective publics” munity discourse around how resources—both material and
(Papacharissi, 2015). When feelings and affects are commu- immaterial—are or feel “fairly” distributed. Ironically, for this
nicated, channeled, and shared through the interactive and reason, social media themselves serve as a site of competition
networked affordances of social media, the “mediality” of for resources where social justice is newly configured, chal-
social media platforms “invites affective gestures that provide lenged, and advocated in relation to the media characteristics.
the basis for how individuals connect and tune into the events Attention, visibility, and fame that function as new currencies
in the making” (Papacharissi, 2015, p. 62). This helps the in the social media environments are now understood as weap-
public “feel their way into what movement[s] mean” but in a ons to galvanize movements (Abidin, 2021; Milan, 2015;
connective way, which further ignites, powers, and disrupts Tufekci, 2013). On TikTok, these multi-layered meanings and
social movements in various manners in social media aspects of social movements appear in a more convoluted
(Papacharissi, 2015). manner, arising from the unique platform culture of audiovi-
As such, digitally mobilized social movements often sual meme virality (Kaye et al., 2022).
quickly scale up, spurring people’s attention and emotion
instantly, mobilizing internal and external resources, and
empowering participants and protestors of the movements
TikTok and Social Movements
(Mundt et al., 2018; Tufekci, 2014, 2017). Yet, these charac- TikTok’s unique tools for creativity, such as AI-powered fil-
teristics of social media pose some challenges and concerns ters, the voiceover function, and interactive features like
as well. While engagements from the online grassroots can duets, have reconfigured our ways to engage in, lead, and
be effective at amplifying messages and soliciting prime even disrupt social movements. While not necessarily plac-
attention, it can also lead to the emergence and populariza- ing the “social justice” messages upfront, users now convey
tion of “slacktivism,” wherein people take an illusionary their messages and beliefs of social (in)justice issues to vid-
sense of achievements and participation through simple eos of them singing, dancing, cooking, and performing skits
clicks of the “like” and “share” buttons, not necessarily mak- (Abidin, 2021; Boffone, 2021; Kaur-Gill, 2022; Kaye et al.,
ing concrete engagements with the messages and advocacies 2022). The participatory affordances of TikTok invite more
(Morozov, 2009). Also, hatred and violence are often sparked users to perform and showcase their creativity in their par-
and circulate online through pop culture artifacts like memes, ticipation in social movements, using TikTok’s various func-
which can make social movements more contentious. When tions of content creation, sharing, and reproduction (e.g.,
geographical conflicts like warfare or such discourses are Boffone, 2021; Hautea et al., 2021). This everyday use of
brought into the social media space, media practices and TikTok becomes a powerful weapon for social advocacy and
contents can lead into a mass mobilization on social media, political messages, formidable enough to make a “real
endorsing military propaganda, armed with xenophobia and action” in the world through the platform’s networkedness.
nationalism (Kuntsman & Stein, 2015). US President Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in
When social movements become easily accessible via the November 2020 was significantly affected, with some events
simple act of click, individuals operationalize the idea of being canceled, after teenage TikTok users and K-pop stans
social justice in various ways, reflecting their interests and fooled the Trump supporters by sharing the information
beliefs. While social justice is commonly associated with about their prank of “no show” at the event (Lorenz et al.,
fairness, equality, and democracy (Fraser, 1999; Sandel, 2020). Through practices like hashtagging, commenting,
2011; Walzer, 2020), the ways people interpret the idea of sharing, and interactive creation of contents enabled by func-
social justice are quite varied, particularly in animating peo- tions like duets, scattered voices become connected and
ple’s attention in social media. At the same time, in the wake forge what Bruns and Burgess (2011) call “ad hoc publics,”
of cancel culture, the idea of social justice sometimes can where a group of people are self-organized and develop topi-
become extreme (Lewis & Christin, 2022; Norris, 2023). For cal discussions for certain goals on ad hoc basis.
example, call-outs of people with alleged misdemeanors and Messages of social (in)justice on TikTok appear to circulate
mistakes can entail aggressive media practices like public- more popularly through TikTok memes—either as audio
shaming, cyberbullying, and doxing (Bouvier & Machin, memes (Abidin & Kaye, 2021) or as aesthetic templates of vid-
2021; J. Lee & Abidin, 2021). eos as TikTok’s memes (Vizcaíno-Verdu & Abidin, 2022; Zulli
Taking into account such complex layers of social justice & Zulli, 2020). The platform technologies of content creation
advocacy in social media pop cultures, we have elsewhere and participation serve as what Brown et al. (2022) call “affec-
suggested our conceptualization of “social justice” as “the tive designs” modulating and amplifying affect among the pub-
fairness and political/moral correctness of a society or a media lic. As playful meme culture encourages mimicking through
environment in its divisions, redistributions, and awareness replicability and creativity (Shifman, 2013), TikTok’s meme
of rewards and burdens” (Abidin & Lee, 2022, p. 12). The templates lure users to remix and create memetic contents for
4 Social Media + Society

self-expression, but within the boundary of “circumscribed cre- on TikTok. By paying attention to how Palestinian TikTokers
ativity” being guided by the platform features and politics use TikTok’s creative affordances and formulate what they call
(Kaye et al., 2021). This facilitates the gathering of ad hoc pub- “playful activism,” Cervi and Divon suggest that TikTok’s
lics through the circulation of affects like humor (Sadler, 2022) unique meme culture serves as a new locus where people are
or hate (Weimann & Masri, 2020) on the platform. Social encouraged to “tackle ‘hard’ topics through the performance
movements emerging on TikTok mirror such unique character- of playful communicative styles.” When affects on social
istics, which introduces new ways of mobilizing and amplify- issues are shared through audiovisual memes as such, activism
ing the movements with creative performance (Boffone, 2021). becomes “more relatable, tangible, and accessible to broader
When social movements become integral to our daily audiences.”
media use and practice as such, with a low participation When Cervi and Divon examine what elements mediate
threshold enabled by TikTok’s creative and participatory social movements on TikTok, Xinyu (Andy) Zhao and
affordances, social movements are also adopted as a place- Crystal Abidin look at a style of social movements on TikTok.
holder for virality, fame, and ultimately stardom on the plat- In their article, “The ‘Fox Eye’ Challenge Trend: Anti-
form. Joining the popular hashtags or video templates Racism Work, Platform Affordances, and the Vernacular of
appears to be the easiest way to piggyback the viral trends Gesticular Activism on TikTok,” Zhao and Abidin study how
(Abidin, 2021) or just to “game the system” on social media Asian TikTok content creators utilize audiovisual narratives
platforms for attention (Gillespie, 2014) and even negative and components to call out racist undertones embedded in
publicity (Abidin, 2022), while not always necessarily the trending the “Fox Eye” challenge, where celebrities and
engaging in meaningful ways with the original politic. Public ordinary users showcase their aesthetically stylized makeup
shaming and calling out misdemeanors through duets and highlighting almond-shaped “fox eyes.” They introduce the
replies is also practiced as “a route to rise to internet celeb- theoretical concept, “gesticular activism,” that is “the drama-
rity” based on TikTok virality (Abidin, 2021, p. 84). This tization of networked activism work that is contingent upon
kind of “surface-level” activism is criticized for “jump[ing] curating hyper-visible, at times even self-indulgent, perfor-
on the ‘bandwagon’” (Brown et al., 2022, p. 12) as it decon- mances to adapt to the algorithmic logics of platforms.” This
textualizes the complicated layers around activism, depoliti- notion of “gesticular activism” illustrates how (short) video
cizing the political messages, but feeds into the capitalist platforms like TikTok help different actors creatively con-
ideologies of what Hindman (2009) calls “online eyeball struct “various personalised audiovisual narratives” to
economy” (quoted in Sadler, 2022). enhance awareness of social issues and collectively chal-
Against these convoluted aspects, how should we study lenge social injustice.
TikTok and social movements? What insights and new Jenny Jeehyun Lee and Jin Lee also examine anti-racist
knowledges can we draw from a myriad of social movements activism on TikTok, but with a focus on networked connec-
happening on TikTok, especially in the globally connected tions between TikTok users within the hashtag space. Their
media landscape? How does TikTok (re)shape our ways of article “#StopAsianHate on TikTok: Asian/American
engaging with societies and doing social justice, particularly Women’s Space-Making for Spearheading Counter-
given the expansion of the short-video app ecology led by Narratives and Forming an Ad Hoc Asian Community”
TikTok? Our Special Issue “TikTok and Social Movements” explains that Asian American female TikTokers’ participa-
delves into these questions by interrogating five case studies tion of the popularly trending hashtag #StopAsianHate is a
and offering three approaches. way to carve out the space for “ad hoc communities.” By
creatively sharing their experiences and voices under the
#StopAsianHate hashtag, Asian Americans creatively occupy
This Special Issue
the “community space” “with their presence and cultivation
“TikTok and Social Movements” is our third in the string of of solidarity on the platform” but on an “ad hoc basis.” Lee
Special Issues on TikTok curated by the TikTok Cultures and Lee’s feminist geographic lens suggests social media
Research Network, which aims to map out the dynamically hashtags as a space-making practice, which becomes more
evolving cultures of and around the platform from different performative and connective, but also temporary at the same
scholarly angles in relation to diverse regional and cultural time, especially in the pandemic.
contexts. In this collection, we focus on how TikTok users Aidan Moir’s article “The Use of TikTok for Political
spread their advocacy and mobilize collective actions among Campaigning in Canada: The Case of Jagmeet Singh” pays
the anonymous public on TikTok and how TikTok itself attention to the newly emerging culture of celebrity politi-
serves as a site of various movements. cians on TikTok in relation to electoral politics. Through a
We begin with Laura Cervi and Tom Divon’s article case study of the Canadian politician Jagmeet Singh’s use of
“Playful Activism: Memetic Performances of Palestinian TikTok in his electoral campaigns, Moir shows that TikTok
Resistance in TikTok #Challenges,” which examines has become a new venue for “celebrity politicians” to
Palestinian TikTokers’ performed acts of resistance against develop their electoral campaigns and engage with their
Israel-Gaza violence, utilizing meme templates and challenges potential voters, especially responding to the emerging
Lee and Abidin 5

importance of social media and political force of young gen- another important aspect that should be taken into consider-
erations. Moir explains that TikTok’s creative affordance and ation: When social media users initiate and join social move-
issues of social justice are “strategically employed” by poli- ments, how should researchers navigate the messiness,
ticians for their “left-wing populism” branding. This illus- complexity, virality, and creativity of TikTok cultures? When
trates how electoral politics are evolving, centering on the the virality of contents and messages of social issues fades out,
presentation and performance of authenticity, in the creative or when people decide to depart from the movements by delet-
and participatory social media era. ing their contents, how should we approach such temporality
Finally, we invite you to look at Douyin, the sister app of and discuss its social values and limits, while also respecting
TikTok in China. The article “Short Video Activism with and participants’ decisions to withdraw their participation?
on Douyin: An Innovative Repertoire of Contention for For example, Lee and Lee intentionally omit the screen-
Chinese Consumers” authored by Zizheng Yu, Jiaxi Hou, grabs of their data to protect the original content creators’
and Oscar Zhou maps out how consumer activism has rights to be forgotten after the virality of the social move-
evolved in the short-video platform environment. In their ment. Yet, Zhao and Abidin’s decision to include visual evi-
study on Chinese consumer protest against TikTok’s sister dence of their data honors content creators’ desires to increase
app Douyin, Yu, Hou, and Zhou explain how Chinese con- their visibility and reputational value when participating in
sumers have taken up the new environment of short-video- online social movements, and also preserves the complicated
based social media platforms, led by Douyin, as an nuances of TikTok visual contents that are difficult to capture
“innovative repertoire of contention for Chinese consumers” in text. Two other papers in this collection, each authored by
for consumer rights. Their discussion on consumers’ short- Cervi and Divon, and by Yu et al., negotiate such ethical con-
video tactics illustrates how consumer activism is popularly cerns and importance of visual elements in the social move-
integrated within everyday use of short-video platforms, but ments and include screengrabs with identifiable data being
is simultaneously moderated by the platform in relation to omitted via image editing. These different decisions around
government policies and regulations around the newly whether to anonymize the data and how to present visual
emerging platform environment. data are indicative of various approaches to handle TikTok
While many people conflate Douyin and TikTok, Kaye data and interrogate social movements on the platform in
et al. (2021) argue that they are two separate apps, differently relation to its creative and communicative affordances and
platformized “to survive in two opposing platform ecosys- the broader social media cultures.
tems in China and overseas” (p. 229). In developing and dis- The three commentaries in this collection may be useful
rupting social movements, movements on Douyin are here, providing valuable insight for scholars to consider in
significantly influenced by the Chinese government’s inter- our study of TikTok and social movements. In their commen-
vention in the app, user demographics, and platform ecosys- tary “TikTok as a Key Platform for Youth Political
tems and features like e-commerce (e.g., Chen et al., 2021; Expression: Reflecting on the Opportunities and Stakes
Treré & Yu, 2021; Yu, 2021) unlike TikTok. However, there Involved,” Ioana Literat and Neta Kligler-Vilenchik address
are some similarities between TikTok and Douyin, especially the complicated aspects of TikTok and the platform cultures
regarding how audiovisual elements are used in spreading which can be a harbinger of “youth political lives and expres-
and narrating messages of social justice and how memetic sion.” For instance, they highlight TikTok’s playful culture,
content creation forms a new way of shaping politics and where “serious” political and social issues are memetically
developing and engaging in social movements, as illustrated visualized and consumed and, at the same time, where con-
in the five cases in our Special Issue. The continuities and tents of misinformation and hate quickly and widely spread
discontinuities between social movements on TikTok and in the form of viral memes. This, again, points us to the
Douyin lead us to ponder how we can expand the current importance of having a “balanced and constructive approach”
TikTok studies beyond just one particular platform and dis- in TikTok studies that “embrace[s] the messiness and com-
cuss short-video cultures at large. This discussion can begin plexity” of TikTok cultures and the platform itself.
by paying special attention to platform specificities and geo- Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández’s “Taking Humor
location sensitivities between the two platforms, instead of Seriously on TikTok” extends the discussion that Literat and
mistakenly repeating the reductionist arguments of “TikTok Kligler-Vilenchik make, and posits that TikTok’s humorous
and Douyin are the same” or “one is a different version of the and playful culture is a double-edged sword. When social
other.” The five articles of TikTok and Douyin cases in the debates and political issues are all mixed up in the creation,
Special Issue will be a starting point to initiate a conversation consumption, and reproduction of memetic TikTok videos,
on this matter. violent and brutal undertones in the humorous memetic con-
While their foci and topics are varied, the case studies in tents are trivialized and even normalized for “fun.” Given
the Special Issue discuss TikTok’s unique characteristics that that humor and playfulness are “central to TikTok cultures,”
enable the viral spread of audiovisual creative expression in it is crucial to “take humor seriously,” discussing the harmful
the initiation, mobilization, development, and interruption of aspects, especially for online safety and well-being, but at
social movements. However, these characteristics also point to the same time valuing political potential of resistance.
6 Social Media + Society

Stefanie Duguay’s suggestion of queer methodologies in In C. Arkenbout, J. Wilson, & D. de Zeeuw (Eds.), Critical
her commentary “TikTok’s Queer Potential: Identity, meme reader: Global mutations of the viral image (pp. 58–68).
Methods, Movements” can be a meaningful and practical Institute of Network Cultures.
way to investigate the complex aspects of TikTok cultures. Abidin, C., & Lee, J. (2022). Social justice through social media
pop cultures: Case studies and reading resources on influenc-
While Duguay’s focus is more on queer users’ appropria-
ers and TikTok. TikTok Cultures Research Network (TCRN) &
tion of creative functionalities and features that are newly
Social Media Pop Cultures Programme, Centre for Culture and
introduced by TikTok, the queer methodologies that she Technology (CCAT), Curtin University. https://tiktokcultures.
suggests can be a practical method for the broader TikTok com/socialjustice2022/
studies to interrogate such complexity and messiness by Anderson, M., & Keehn, G. (2020). “OK Boomer”: Internet memes
“embrac[ing] multiplicity, misalignments, and silences” in as consciousness building. Radical Teacher, 118. https://doi.
cultural phenomena. org/10.5195/rt.2020.746
The case studies and suggested approaches in this collec- Basch, C. H., Meleo-Erwin, Z., Fera, J., Jaime, C., & Basch, C.
tion are not “absolute.” Rather, the cultures and power E. (2021). A global pandemic in the time of viral memes:
dynamics of social movements on TikTok continue to evolve COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and disinformation on
along with technological development and sociocultural TikTok. Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, 17, 2373–
2377.
changes. We offer our collection of studies and approaches
Bhandari, A., & Bimo, S. (2020, October). TikTok and the algo-
as a springboard to diversify ways to engage with TikTok
rithmized self: A new model of online interaction [Paper pre-
scholarship. We hope you enjoy the collection that aims to sentation]. AoIR 2020: The 21th Annual Conference of the
encapsulate some of the dynamic landscape of TikTok’s Association of Internet Researchers, Virtual Event: AoIR.
social movement cultures. http://spir.aoir.org
Boffone, T. (2021). Renegades: Digital dance cultures from
Acknowledgements Dubsmash to TikTok. Oxford University Press.
This paper draws from Abidin’s research on digital cultures in the Bouvier, G., & Machin, D. (2021). What gets lost in Twitter “can-
Asia Pacific region between 2019 and 2022, during which several cel culture” hashtags? Calling out racists reveals some limita-
grants supported the fieldwork. In particular, Abidin would like to tions of social justice campaigns. Discourse & Society, 32(3),
acknowledge the most recent funding from the Australian Research 307–327.
Council (DE190100789) for supporting research on Social Media boyd, d. (2010). Social network sites as networked publics:
Influencers as Conduits of Knowledge in Australia and Asia, as well Affordances, dynamics, and implications. In Z. Papacharissi
as support from the TikTok Cultures Research Network. Lee also (Ed.), A networked self (pp. 47–66). Routledge.
would like to acknowledge the research support package from MCASI Brown, Y., Pini, B., & Pavlidis, A. (2022). Affective design and
and the Faculty of Humanities at Curtin University. memetic qualities: Generating affect and political engagement
through bushfire TikToks. Journal of Sociology. Advance online
Declaration of Conflicting Interests publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/14407833221110267
Bruns, A., & Burgess, J. (2011). The use of Twitter hashtags in
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect the formation of ad hoc publics. In A. Bruns & P. De Wilde
to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 6th European consortium for politi-
cal research (ECPR) general conference 2011 (pp. 1–9). The
Funding European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR).
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for Bruns, A., Highfield, T., & Burgess, J. (2014). The Arab Spring and
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study its social media audiences: English and Arabic Twitter users
was supported by Australian Research Council (DE190100789), and their networks. In M. McCaughey (Ed.), Cyberactivism on
Curtin University of Technology Research support, and by MCASI the participatory web (pp. 96–128). Routledge.
and Faculty of Humanities. Burgess, J. (2006). Hearing ordinary voices: Cultural studies, ver-
nacular creativity and digital storytelling. Continuum, 20(2),
ORCID iD 201–214. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304310600641737
Cammaerts, B. (2015). Social media and activism. In P. H. Ang
Jin Lee https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5698-5561 & R. Mansell (Eds.), The international encyclopedia of digi-
Crystal Abidin https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5346-6977 tal communication and society (pp. 1–8). John Wiley & Sons.
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118767771.wbiedcs083
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video activism” in China through two case studies. Journal of
Jin Lee studies meanings and practices of intimacies in social media
Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 65(5), 761–785.
pop cultures with a particular focus on the Asia Pacific region. She is
Tufekci, Z. (2013). “Not this one”: Social movements, the atten-
Research Fellow of Internet Studies at Curtin University, Australia.
tion economy, and microcelebrity networked activism.
American Behavioral Scientist, 57(7), 848–870. https://doi. Crystal Abidin (PhD, University of Western Australia) is a Professor
org/10.1177/0002764213479369 of Internet Studies at Curtin University. Her research interests
Tufekci, Z. (2014). The medium and the movement: Digital tools, include influencer cultures, social media pop cultures, and the digi-
social movement politics, and the end of the free rider problem. tal Asia Pacific.