Good morning and welcome to our first iteration of Bigtent Creative’s Newsletter. We’re bringing you fresh news from what we’re seeing in the trenches of social media influence and Election 2020 and here are this week’s hot takes:
The TikTok Ban
The first wave of the TikTok Ban almost went into effect over the weekend as millions braced themselves for what this might look like. The main things we know are:
The U.S. has not banned TikTok from being hosted in U.S. app stores as intended yet, but this ceasefire isn’t lasting long with a new ban set in place for September 27th and
TikTok just filed an injunction showing they mean business as they hope to delay the ban and the potential of the app being barred from the U.S. along with WeChat on November 12th.
The thing that’s most clear is that any time and energy spent on shutting down this app equates to an infringement on the most powerful voter base of the 2020 election because this is where Gen Z activates most.
Want data to back this up? Read on!
Barring the app from essential internet services in the U.S. as a whole could cripple TikTok’s operations, and the reach of our creators and voters in November. Beyond that, it would hurt thousands of creators who currently utilize the platform as a tool to engage with fellow Gen Zers who’ve been attracted to the app’s easy-to-use interface and enjoy the ability to create fun, accessible content with quick turnaround.
For our Creators at BigTent, TikTok represents a hub of diverse talent and ideas where young people connect and activate over issues they care about deeply.
First Amendment Infringement
...Speaking of creativity and activism, our leadership at Bigtent is looking at how banning TikTok might violate the First Amendment as we see an overwhelming amount of engagement for Gen Z on the platform in comparison to other platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitch.
From the data it’s clear — Gen Z is most active and engaged on TikTok, and to ban this platform from operating is to cut off the microphone of a fast growing subset of voters in America.
Bigtent Registered Voters, broken down by categories “Gen Z” with 85.9%, and “Everyone else” with 14.1%
Generation Z is the most diverse, most digitally connected generation in the U.S. — of which 24 Million will be eligible to vote in November 2020. Many Gen Z voters have spent most of the past year stuck at home online due to the Pandemic, which begs the question “how does one engage them?” TikTok and other platforms have provided an outlet for these young voters where they’ve been able to engage and activate one another while simultaneously watching the world LITERALLY burn due to the effects of climate change, the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other BIPOC, and growing outrage over the mismanagement of the pandemic and economic fallout. For many, this will be their first Presidential Election and they’re voting according to the issues rather than party, more often than not progressively to the left.
Changing Demographics
Millennials and Gen Z will compromise 41% of the electorate in 2020 giving them enormous power in comparison to old, white, and more conservative leaning Boomers who have outranked them by size and participation, making them the deciding constituency in previous elections like 2016.
What’s more, young voters such as those that fall under Gen Z are often the least touched voters by parties and campaigns due to crappy voter IDing and because parties concentrate their get-out-the-vote efforts on those who have voted before which often enables the trend of low turnout among the young. Bigtent is changing that trend historically this year by registering thousands of voters through TikTok by empowering predominantly WoC Creators to engage Gen Z.
So far Bigtent Creative has registered over 8k people at less than $15/registration, of which over 90% of those registrations are people under 25, and 60% are women. Our nonprofit advocacy group has raised over $500k and counting to pay influencers - many who are overwhelmingly using it to organize their own communities. We believe this makes TikTok the most efficient, break-out organizing tool of this election cycle and that much more important to furthering democracy in America.
Texas on Our Minds
When we began our TikTok voter registration campaigns, we did so with the intention of engaging Gen Z voters in key swing states. We’ve been stoked on the results but even more excited by the unintended surprise - Bigtent Creative is overwhelmingly reaching 2020’s most important voters - Latinx Zoomers.
As the second most populous state in the nation, Texas boasts a population of 29.9 Million, of which half of the Latinx population is eligible to vote with 5.6 Million potential voters. For the first time, in 2020 Latinx voters alone are set to be the nation’s largest racial or ethnic minority in a U.S. presidential election, making these voter registration trends that much more intriguing. (BTW, in case you didn’t already know this, I am a proud Dominican-American!)
Bigtent Registrations, broken down by State and Race
Overwhelmingly, we are seeing 21.6% of our respondents that are attempting to register to vote coming from Texas. A majority of these potential voters are identifying as Hispanic and/or Latinx and we’re not willing to let any voting bloc go untouched this year, especially in a year when we know Latinx Gen Z voters can make all the difference. Therefore, we’re trying to do everything we can to reach them, including fighting back on the TikTok ban and exploring ways to make online voter registration more accessible and legal in states where Latinx voters make up a majority of the electorate. This voting bloc has the potential to be the one to change this year’s election and flip Texas Blue, but it can only do so if voters are registered...because when we register, we vote!
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We’ll be back with new information, data, and analysis from our campaigns every week on Tuesdays from now until Election Day. Help us spread the word about how crucial TikTok, online voter registration, and the other work we are doing is by forwarding this email to friends who care about democracy and voter outreach.