The left needs a TikTok strategy - fast.

The right understand the power of TikTok and other social media platforms - and the left risks being left behind with dire political consequences.

Let’s talk about milk. A few weeks ago, Reform leader Nigel Farage posted a video from what he described as a “smart hotel”. Clutching a mug of coffee, he bemoans the milk options on offer. Semi-skimmed - “I don’t like that”, oat milk - “what the hell is that when it’s at home?” - and almond milk.

Farage protests he just wants “proper blood milk”, not “left wing options”. He concludes, with a mischievous smile: “What’s wrong with me asking for that?”

@nigel_farageI just want proper milk!

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You may understandably rail against the absurdity of the video. Why is a frontline politician doing videos ranting about milk? Why does the left have anything to do with the milk options of a fancy hotel? How is this guy getting away with his man-of-the-people schtick whilst ranting about how a posh hotel isn’t up to his standards?

Ludicrous as it may be, this pithy little video makes its intended points. It’s about how the left are controlling busybodies and killjoys, trying to impose its standards and restrictions on everybody else, stopping others from enjoying their lives and making their own decisions. And if that means a freeborn British citizen making mistakes, including with their choice of full fat milk, why is that anybody else’s business?!? That’s the gist.

This TikTok video, captioned ‘I just want proper milk!’ has, as of now, 2.3 million views, 185,200 likes, has been commented on 5,300 times, bookmarked 11,200 times, and has been forwarded on approaching 30,000 times. I don’t know how many were hate-watching, but I admit to stifling a smile by the end of it. Farage now has 1.1 million TikTok followers, while Reform has 330,000 followers, compared to Labour’s 232,000 and the Conservatives’ 85,000.

TikTok is becoming a crucial platform for how citizens consume news and politically engage, particularly among younger people. The old mediums are in sharp decline. According to the latest Ofcom report, the main platform used for news for 88% of Britons aged 16-24 is online, with 82% stating social media, and just 49% stating television, 24% opting for newspapers in print or online, and 23% radio. These figures shift dramatically according to age: television is a main platform for news for 91% of Britons aged 75+, with just 15% giving ‘social media’ as their answer.

It’s TikTok in particular that’s dramatically on the rise. Facebook remains the most-used social media source, reaching 30% of UK adults, but TikTok has surged from 1% in 2020 to 11% now. The flagship news programmes of BBC One and ITV - long the main way the Brits kept up with what’s going on in the world - are in steep decline.

Again, there are massive age differentials. Amongst younger teens, TikTok is on 30%, second behind the BBC on 36% and ahead of YouTube on 27%. For 8% of 16-to-24 year olds, TikTok is now the single most important source of news. That may not sound a lot, but it’s the trend that matters, and that’s still more than the BBC’s flagship news programmes, as well the BBC and and Sky News channels combined. Notably, it’s online content - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram as well as TikTok - which dominates the news consumption tastes of the young.

Obviously it’s not all about TikTok. YouTube is super important: the chart shows a spectacular jump as a top 20 news source from 7% to 19% between 2023 and 2024. This is deceptive, though, as per Ofcom’s research note.

In any case, the left has got better at YouTube - though there’s still big room for improvement.

Meta’s Instagram is important, too. Facebook - the centre of the Meta universe - unfortunately applied an algorithm change in November 2023 which suppressed political content, leading progressive accounts - mine included - to report an overnight 95% fall in traffic. Twitter, of course, is now run by a far-right lunatic who has rigged the algorithm to favour fellow believers, leading to an exodus of some progressives (including to Bluesky, which is rising in significance). This underlines, of course, that we are forever at the mercy of the plutocrats who rule social media platforms, and have to adapt as best we can.

In the US, TikTok was widely blamed by genocide apologists for making younger people oppose Israel’s mass slaughter of the Palestinian people. Some of them were undoubtedly politicised by watching Israeli soldiers gleefully post their war crimes, but in any case, there’s no question TikTok helped offer an alternative to the pro-Israel apologism offered up by, say, cable news channels generally watched by older Americans, who tend to be more pro-Israel.

But TikTok and other such platforms are clearly playing a role in right-wing radicalisation, of the sort which definitely featured in the recent US elections. When I recently visited Austria, anti-fascist activists pointed to how the far-right Freedom Party - which came top in the September 2024 general election - dominates TikTok.

In Britain, the left was the pioneer when it came to social media. In the Jeremy Corbyn era, the grassroots left movement Momentum created viral video content, not least on Facebook, which reached millions, not least in the 2017 election when Labour secured 40% of the vote and deprived the Tories of their parliamentary majority.

The problem, of course, is now the left has fragmented and lacks a common unified purpose. But the surge of the Green Party and anti-genocide independent candidates in the 2024 election underlines the appetite for progressive politics - as does polling which consistently shows large majorities in favour of, say, public ownership, taxing the rich, workers’ rights, climate justice, and opposing war crimes and genocide. Sure, the political elite has conspired to try and deprive those views of representation - which is why well crafted content will make an impact.

There is a network in Britain called NEON which trains up smart progressive communicators. Its focus has been on, for example, news channels. The problem, to be blunt, is few people get their news this way, and it’s declining. The big reason to get communicators on those channels is to repurpose interventions into viral social media content, which will reach far more people than the original audience.

So here’s what I think the strategy needs to be. The left needs a ‘Social Media Unit’. This would consist of a handful of properly paid producers and researchers. They would work with, say, 10 communicators to create viral social media content - on TikTok, but also, say, for YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. There would be a premium put on authenticity, relatability, natural charisma and a knack of packaging left arguments for ‘normies’ - that is, not the already politicised.

Let’s throw in two examples to flesh that out. One is Faiza Shaheen, who was Labour’s candidate for Chingford & Woodford Green, until Starmer’s goons purged her on the eve of the general election. A working-class Muslim woman of colour who beat formidable odds to become a talented economist frequently on TV screens, the Starmerites wanted her out for a reason - they knew she risked becoming a leader of the left in Parliament. Telegenic and relatable, she’d reach new audiences.

Another is Gary Stevenson, a working-class East Ender who ended up as a Citibank trader, made his money by betting that inequality would stifle economic growth, and now uses his platform to to promote alternative economic ideas. His backstory, ‘bloke in the pub’ style of delivery as well as his obvious knowledge and experience means he already has a big audience on his YouTube channel and TikTok, but he’s a good example of what could actually work.

A confession here. I do not have a TikTok strategy - I opened an account which I’ve barely used (I’m not even verified). I am looking to hire someone to fix this, please do message with ideas.

But this is an idea for the broader left which surely needs exploring. The money to hire skilled professionals for this ‘Social Media Unit of the Left’ could easily be crowdfunded. It could make such a difference - getting carefully crafted content from influencers who gradually make their name and win trusted relationships with audiences.

How this relates to electoral politics would need to be worked out. The Green Party made a big breakthrough by winning 4 seats in July, and coming second in dozens of other seats, but - let me be blunt - their social media game remains very poor and needs fixing fast. As for independents, the young British-Palestinian prodigy who nearly unseated Blairite ultra Wes Streeting in Ilford North - Leanne Mohamad - had a brilliant social media campaign others can learn from.

What would be powerful is to have a strategy to push out common themes and arguments and narratives. That can’t cut across authenticity, of course - each influencer needs to have the confidence to speak in their own voice. The content would be a blend, including the sassy and light-hearted as well as the hard-hitting.

Many on the left will inevitably have objections. We are a collective movement, after all, based on collective struggle. None of this detracts from that: indeed, having these influencers will help elevate these struggles using their platforms. We still need to organise in communities and workplaces, as well as organise mass rallies and various forms of direct action. We still need accountable leaders, in the form of politicians and trade union leaders (and clearly it’s not either/or - Mick Lynch is surely a leading contender for the anti-Farage on TikTok, and indeed more generally).

But it would be a terrible mistake not to understand the role of TikTok and other mediums in politicisation. The right understand this - admittedly aided by the likes of Elon Musk rigging the game in their favour. We either understand trends and adapt - or we risk being swept away by the West’s right-wing authoritarian turn.