Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the New Democratic Party and the most popular politician in Canada on TikTok with nearly 900,000 followers, deactivated his profile, undermining his party’s efforts to connect with young people on social media.
Due to security concerns regarding the Chinese-owned network, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared TikTok will be prohibited on all federally-issued government devices on February 27.
After similar prohibitions in the United States by federal, state, and multiple colleges in December, Trudeau made his decision.
Singh has described his deactivation from the app as “taking a pause,” leaving up the potential of reactivating his TikTok account in the future once the security issues are resolved.The permanent campaign is a style of campaigning used by politicians and their staff to continually solicit support from the electorate while in office.
In an effort to modernize the party and move toward perpetual campaigning, the NDP started hiring digital strategists, market analysts, and public relations specialists in 2000.
As Singh was intended to remain visible on the platform in advance of a snap election, TikTok was a crucial part of the NDP’s ongoing campaign plan.Singh launched his TikTok in August 2019 before the platform exploded in popularity in North America during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
His second video, posted days before the October 2019 federal election, featured Singh promoting the NDP’s platform using the viral Nope Yup trend. Lip-syncing to the audio, a snippet of the song Choices by E-40, Singh’s TikTok went viral and accumulated almost 175,000 views within 72 hours.
Singh continued using TikTok as a vital component of the NDP’s digital strategy to reach young voters by highlighting the party’s social democratic platform. He posted content on issues ranging from Islamophobia in Canada to instructions on how to pronounce his first name.
His videos frequently used TikTok’s unique features such as audio, trends and challenges.
Singh’s most popular video had over eight million views. The video consisted of Singh using TikTok’s greenscreen function to participate in the Alors on Danse trend. Swaying in front of a group of young adults, text edited onto the video proclaimed: “When they say young people don’t vote but you know they’re going to make history in the next election.”
