The Clock Is TikTokking: Using TikTok For Vegan Outreach

In early 2021, I swallowed my pride and signed up for TikTok!

This app was changing at the time from being primarily a site for children to dance around miming to current chart music to a platform with more serious and a good deal of adult-orientated material. In fact, when I first joined, I saw a few “you’re too young to be on TikTok” comments, directed at myself or others not still waiting for puberty. Actually, that is not quite true because invariably the word “you’re” would be spelt “your.” Perhaps an indication of the increase in adults using TikTok is that the app is slowly introducing 3 minutes as its video limit as opposed to 60 seconds.

Now, why would I subject myself to this ordeal? I had a serious movement issue in mind. For many months I have developed a growing concern that, in several social media platforms, “vegan bubbles” had formed, resulting in vegans, by and large, talking to one another. Indeed, I think some of the bigger “vegan influencers” and “content providers” have noticed this phenomenon and have begun to fashion content that will play well within the vegan community, whereas it would likely meet resistance among the general public.

A quick look at TikTok at the beginning of 2021 seems to confirm this hypothesis. The limited number of vegans on TikTok then would be faced by an avalanche of negative, rude, and generally hostile comments for material that would have received like-after-like on, for example, Facebook. So, with all this as the backdrop, I began what I’ve come to refer to as my “TikTok experiment.” I was immediately informed by a close friend that I was “doing TikTok” all wrong; that there is a “TikTok game” to be played if I was to quickly reach the holy grail - 1000 followers. To this date, I haven’t reached this number, so that means that I can’t “go live” on TikTok and speak to my adoring followers, so dedicated am I in not playing the TikTok game.

So, there I am, posting clips from animal rights philosopher Tom Regan; some from the pioneers of the vegan social movement, and some from my own sociological work. Not exactly the average TikTok fare! Have I broken out of the vegan bubble? - yes and no. I certainly get a lot of comments from animal farmers and the general public - far more than on any other SM platforms. However, I’ve noticed that a vegan bubble seems to be forming in TikTok too, with growing concerns about vegans being banned, reported, and “shadowbanned.”

Because my content is more serious than most, the comments I’ve attracted from those who oppose veganism are often pretty serious and fairly well thought out too. I have my moments, of course, with plenty of “bacon” comments, as well as comments that do not make much sense. You can see on this page a screenshot showing what I think is one of the positive conversations. Indeed, someone fairly belligerent towards vegans eventually saying that they will check out Tom Regan’s ground-breaking text, The Case for Animal Rights.

Although I have not heard from this person for a while, I am not seriously entertaining the idea that they are currently ploughing through the 425 pages of “The Case!” And good luck to them if they are! It is not Regan’s most easily digested text - I tend to recommend his 2001 Defending Animal Rights for those keen to dip their toes into rights-based animal rights.

Sociology, which has a rich and proud history of exposing and challenging oppression and inequality based on gender, race, class, age, and sexual orientation, must now widen its scope to include other animals in its sphere of study, and to include speciesism in its rightful place alongside other forms of oppression.

Clifton Flynn, Understanding Animal Abuse: A Sociological Analysis (2012)

As I said, I have not managed to get myself 1000 followers yet. At the time of writing, I’m creeping towards 700. If I do reach the promised land, then I guess my TikTok experiment will enter its second phase.

By Dr. Roger Yates