TikTok has unseated its social media rivals as the top spot for young people to get their news.
TikTok is now the most popular social app for news among 18- to 29-year-olds in the US, according to new survey data from the Pew Research Center. The app surpassed YouTube and Instagram, which were the top choices in 2024.
Forty-three percent of young adults said they regularly get news from TikTok in 2025, compared to 41% for both YouTube and Facebook. Forty percent named Instagram as a regular news source, while 21% said X (formerly Twitter) and 18% said Reddit.
Social media beat out every other format as a place where 18- to 29-year-olds said they get news, according to Pew’s survey. Seventy-six percent of the cohort said they often or sometimes get news from social media, compared to 60% for news websites and 28% for email newsletters.
Half of the young adults who responded to Pew’s survey said they have some or a lot of trust in social media as a news source. That roughly matched the level of trust the age group has for information from national news organizations.
TikTok has been rising quickly as a go-to source for news. In 2023, 32% of respondents named the video app as a place for regular news consumption.
Watching news on TikTok does not necessarily mean tuning into videos from traditional outlets like The Washington Post or NBC News. Young people view commentary from news influencers and user-generated videos tied to current events, such as from a war zone or protest, as news as well.
A new crop of independent news influencers has emerged to report on current events, including creators like Philip DeFranco and Vitus “V” Spehar’s @underthedesknews.
Some professional news organizations, including NPR’s “Planet Money,” have similarly centered videos on individual creators who can help build trust with their audiences. Gen Z social-media users told Business Insider that they are drawn to news creators who can deliver information in a more authentic and relatable manner.
Beyond news commentary, social media creators and podcasters have taken on a bigger role in news gathering in recent months. Politicians and government institutions are turning to podcasts and other formats to reach people, and content creators had a big presence at national conventions for the Democrats and Republicans last year. Many independent creators have applied for access to White House press briefings in 2025.
TikTok has introduced a handful of features tied to news on its app, including the ability for publishers to link to articles inside videos and a “community notes” style fact-checking tool called footnotes. It also works with “independent fact-checkers in over 130 markets to determine if content is accurate,” according to its website.
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