Updated October 2026 with newer Pew Research Center, Statistics Canada, and Canadian Journalism Foundation findings.
Pew Research Center’s September 2025 social media news fact sheet reports that 55% of U.S. adult TikTok users say they regularly get news on the platform.
Across all U.S. adults, the number is 20%, up from 3% in 2020. That distinction matters. One figure measures news use among people who already use TikTok. The other measures TikTok’s news reach across the full adult population.
Pew’s 2026 TikTok overview also found that 37% of U.S. adults say they use TikTok, up from 21% in 2021. As TikTok’s audience has grown, its role as a news source has grown with it.
Facebook and YouTube still reach more Americans for news
In Pew’s 2025 data, Facebook remains the top social platform for regular news use among U.S. adults at 38%. YouTube follows at 35%. Instagram and TikTok are tied at 20%, while X, formerly Twitter, sits at 12% across the full U.S. adult population.
Among platform users, the picture looks different. Pew found that 57% of X users regularly get news there, compared with 55% of TikTok users. A platform can have fewer total users and still be news-heavy among the people who use it.
Most people still don’t open TikTok mainly for news
Pew’s 2026 TikTok overview found that 95% of adult TikTok users say entertainment is a reason they use the app. In a 2024 Pew study, only 15% of TikTok users said getting news was a major reason they use the platform. Another 26% called it a minor reason, while 58% said news was not a reason they used TikTok.
That makes TikTok different from a news website, a newspaper app, or a nightly broadcast. People often don’t go there looking for news. News finds them between comedy clips, product videos, sports commentary, personal stories, and creator reactions.
TikTok news often comes through creators, not only newsrooms
Pew’s 2024 study found that TikTok news consumers get news from a wide range of sources. Among U.S. adults who regularly get news on TikTok, 84% said they ever get news from other people they don’t know personally. About two-thirds said they ever get news from influencers or celebrities, and a similar share said they get news from news outlets or journalists.
That mix can be useful. A creator may explain a story faster or in a more relatable way than a traditional outlet. But it can also get messy. Commentary, reporting, jokes, stitched videos, and partial context can all sit side by side in the same feed.
Pew also found that 23% of U.S. adults who regularly get news on TikTok said they often see news that seems inaccurate, while 49% said they sometimes do. The risk isn’t only false information. It’s also missing context, old clips resurfacing, commentary presented like reporting, and stories compressed until the nuance disappears.
The Canadian picture is different, but the pattern is familiar
Statistics Canada’s 2026 release, using spring 2025 survey data, found that Canadians most typically obtained news or information from news organizations (66%), close contacts (62%), social media platforms (54%), and television programming (52%). Age made a major difference. Among Canadians under 35, social media was the most common source for news or information at 78%. Among those 75 and older, it dropped to 19%.
A 2026 Canadian Journalism Foundation survey adds another layer. It found that 31% of Canadian adults said they get news from at least one independent news creator channel tested in the survey. At the same time, TV news remained the single most common daily source at 52%, followed by general social media for news at 37%, radio at 32%, and traditional outlet websites or apps at 31%.
That points to a hybrid habit. Many Canadians aren’t replacing traditional journalism completely. They’re layering social feeds, creators, newsletters, podcasts, and clips on top of older sources.
How to handle news that finds you on TikTok
The answer isn’t to assume every TikTok news clip is wrong. The answer is to treat the feed as a starting point, not the final source.
Check the original source. If a creator cites a report, court filing, police update, company statement, or study, look for the source before sharing.
Watch the date and location. A real video from the wrong year or the wrong country can still mislead.
Separate reporting from reaction. A person explaining what they think happened is not the same as verified reporting.
Compare more than one source. If a story matters enough to affect what you believe, buy, say, or share, check at least one source that isn’t reacting to the same clip.
Pause before reposting emotional claims. The more a clip pushes anger, fear, or instant certainty, the more it deserves a second look.
What this means for businesses and creators
If you communicate with customers, assume some of them now discover news, trends, product research, and local recommendations through social feeds before they ever search Google. That is why search everywhere optimization matters: visibility is spread across TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, Instagram, LinkedIn, AI tools, and traditional search.
But don’t build your whole information strategy on a rented feed. Social platforms can change reach, rules, formats, and audience behaviour quickly. Publish the full version on your own site. Use social platforms to distribute, explain, and start conversations. Keep the source version somewhere you control.
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