Vice president and likely Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ virality on TikTok isn’t just coconut memes and Brat remixes. Right-wing TikTok users have spent the time since President Joe Biden declined to seek reelection racking up millions of views by spewing unchecked vitriol at Harris en masse. The reach of these videos suggests that TikTok’s algorithm is enabling the proliferation of overtly racist and misogynistic attacks.
A video of right-wing commentator Candace Owens claiming that Harris “slept her way to the top” has over 1.5 million views.
Another video similarly claimed that Harris was “flaunting her relationship with Willie Brown” and that her later decision to marry a Jewish man was suspicious: “What is it with her marrying this Jewish guy? Something’s up. I can’t believe that’s love at first sight, or any other sight. Something’s up. … That woman is up to something. That’s a crawling woman.” The video has over one million views.
The Megyn Kelly Show’s TikTok has spent the past few days blasting hate at Harris. In one video with over 1.3 million views, Kelly claims that Harris is receiving support because Democrats are “not allowed to challenge the Black lady.” (She has also posted other videos steeped in sexist tropes.)
Other videos claiming that Harris is a DEI hire or isn’t actually Black are also spreading on TikTok.
A Tucker Carlson fan account uploaded a video of Carlson interviewing right-wing media figure and neo-Nazi collaborator Jack Posobiec. In the video, Carlson claimed that Democrats “have to go with Kamala because she’s sort of Black, sort of Indian, and a woman. For DEI reasons. That’s the whole point of DEI, to elevate people who don’t deserve their jobs to positions of power, obviously.” It has over 472,000 views.
A video of Harris cooking with actress Mindy Kaling has been circulating as supposed evidence that Harris isn’t actually Black. It has over 601,000 views. (Harris is of Indian descent on her maternal side and Jamaican descent on her paternal side.)
TikTok is saturated with similar videos claiming that Harris isn’t actually Black -- a ridiculous narrative turbocharged by former President Trump attacking her ethnicity -- many of which have individually racked up millions of views.
There’s a massive amount of coverage about Harris’ newfound popularity on TikTok, but that’s just one side of the platform. Right-wing users are apparently being continuously served extremely racist and misogynistic videos about Harris by TikTok’s personalized algorithm.
