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Presidential candidates venture into TikTok to win over young voters
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A worker cleans ceramic tiles showing the faces of presidential candidates and political parties participating in the 2024 general election in Magelang, Central Java on Dec. 4, 2023. (Antara/Anis Efizudin)
The nation’s presidential candidates and their running mates have turned to the hugely popular video-sharing and live-streaming platform TikTok to solicit the support of young Indonesians, who make up the majority of the voter roll for the February election.
Presidential candidate Anies Baswedan made his debut on TikTok on Thursday, days before the country celebrated the New Year’s Eve. He hosted a live stream from East Java called “Temani Saya di Jalan” (accompany me on the road) that drew 300,000 viewers.
He went live for a second time on Saturday and exceeded his initial audience with some 420,000 viewers.
Following Anies’ appearance on TikTok, a fan account appeared on X, formerly Twitter, evoking the style of pages dedicated to K-Pop idols. The account has shared clips of Anies’ two live streams along with captions in the Korean script. It had nearly 100,000 followers as of Tuesday.
Commenting on his newfound success on social media, Anies said on Sunday that he aimed to continue his activities on TikTok and that he would be open to discuss any topic during his live streams, as quoted by kompas.com.
Read also: Election debates spawn memes from candidates, audience
