From Memes to Movements: How Affordances Shape Resistance and Collective Action on TikTok

TikTok marks a shift from traditional social media, focusing on algorithm-driven, short-form content rather than personal networks and followership. The platform’s “For You Page” (FYP) prioritizes content independently of user connections, producing a transient, emotionally-driven experience. This 'content without context' fosters a remixing culture, where viral sounds and audiovisual re-creations enable 'imitation publics' defined by collective emotional expression rather than sustained social bonds. Through features like duets and sound remixes, TikTok opens spaces for subtle acts of resistance against mainstream norms, though the platform’s algorithms often favor content that aligns with dominant socio-political ideals.

This Research Topic invites scholars to critically examine how TikTok’s unique affordances—its algorithmic logic, audiovisual tools, and remixing culture—facilitate both individual acts of subversion and the formation of collective resistance movements. We aim to explore how users leverage these affordances to challenge dominant ideologies, articulate identity, and mobilize for social and political action. Central to this inquiry is the tension between grassroots resistance and the platform’s algorithmic governance, which both enables viral movements and imposes constraints on visibility and discourse. By probing the intricacies of the algorithm’s logic, analyzing content patterns, and exploring user behavior, this Topic aims to uncover how TikTok’s technological ecosystem influences visibility, engagement, and the dynamics of resistance and mobilization.

We are particularly interested in how TikTok’s remixing culture and participatory modalities—such as duets, stitches, and viral sounds—support decentralized, often leaderless movements that can challenge hegemonic structures. At the same time, we seek to investigate how the platform’s algorithmic control, driven by economic imperatives, moderates the visibility of these movements, potentially reinforcing normative content while curbing more radical expressions of resistance. By focusing on both the affordances and limitations of TikTok as a tool for collective action, this Research Topic aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of how post-social media platforms shape contemporary (counter)resistance and social movements. We invite submissions that examine the following themes:

1. Platform modalities: descriptive analyses of TikTok’s platform-specific affordances (e.g., algorithmic curation, duets, stitches, sound remixes) and how these affordances enable or limit the performance of resistance and collective action. Qualitative, quantitative, and computational studies are encouraged, particularly those exploring how decentralized movements organize and represent themselves on TikTok, as well as critical examinations of the platform’s algorithm and its influence on content visibility, user engagement, and the dynamics of activism.

2. Media use: media reception studies analyzing how different user demographics engage with TikTok content, especially around politically or socially sensitive issues. How does TikTok’s algorithm impact long-term user engagement with collective movements and their content?

3. Media effects: studies examining the psychological effects of TikTok’s audiovisual and algorithmic dynamics on user attitudes, identity, and behavior. We welcome reception studies exploring how users engage with TikTok’s subversive content, and how these engagements impact identity formation or participation in collective movements.

4. Artificial intelligence and creative expression: contributions that focus on the role of artificial intelligence in shaping TikTok’s creative participation culture, meme generation, and viral content. How does AI foster or hinder identity creation, subversion, or collective movements on TikTok?

5. Comparative studies across platforms: cross-platform comparisons that explore how TikTok's affordances shape resistance and collective movements differently from platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) or Facebook. What makes TikTok distinct in terms of enabling or limiting digital activism and collective identity formation?

Keywords: TikTok Affordances, Collective Resistance, Algorithmic Governance, Remixing Culture, Digital Activism

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.