Political forums for teenagers playing on Tiktok and Roblox

On the streets of Brookhaven, a massive protest paralyzed traffic for hours. Protesters with Venezuelan flags and tricolor hats blocked the streets, held up banners and chanted slogans. This is not a foreign city full of Venezuelan immigrants: Brookhaven is a virtual setting for the game Roblox, which has more than 370,000 active players and about 470 million online visits. Thousands of them are teenagers.

Across Roblox, Minecraft, and especially TikTok, Venezuelan teenagers have flocked to demonstrations, seeking a forum to debate and explain the complex political moment they have lived through before, during, and after the July 28 presidential election.

The algorithm began tracking the election on the popular TikTok platform a few weeks before July 28. But this applies not only to those of voting age, but also to teenagers who still see political issues as something foreign, no more worthy of attention than a campaign song or the opinions of some influencer who has taken the time to encourage voting.

But the information is reaching them. First in memetic code. Then in POV mode (point of view, Spanish point of view) A format with very short texts that can explain almost any situation in 15 or 60 seconds in a sarcastic way. Then, when the protests multiplied in almost all cities across the country, teenagers saw the accounts of the protesters through live broadcasts on Instagram and TikTok, which showed them simultaneously the protests taking place in the streets. And the repression.

Daniel M*, 15, used TikTok to watch broadcasts of protests recommended “for you,” where he found videos of mass arrests throughout the week following July 28. “I looked it up on TikTok to see if it was real, then I Googled it to find a good news place that had reported it and confirmed it there.”

Ángel R*, 15, discovered it this way too: “I learn about all the election controversies, street movements and everything that is happening thanks to what is appearing on TikTok. Even though it was created to create dances and trends that make you laugh, it is also suitable because there are people who use this space to talk about other things. When something doesn’t suit me or seems unreliable, I look for news from serious media on Google, but if the information seems legitimate and reliable, I believe it.

Many of the accounts are information spaces that are aware of the political context, such as those of influencers such as Santiperez, EsFernandoAndres, Azuaje, Shakti y Eliú, La divaza, Carlos_Eduardo_Espina, Andreecuadros and Ac2ality, whose goal is: “We translate newspapers”. Some of them have an average of 5 to 10 million followers.

(frasepzp1)

Although almost everyone uses humor as a showcase, when they set aside space specifically to speak out on political issues, they immediately feel the weight of censorship. For example, Santi Perez posted a video in which he claimed that he had received anonymous threats and had to leave Venezuela for his safety.

Fernanda R.*, 14, who lives in the Andean country, commented that from before the elections, she watched a lot of information about learning voting protocols. But as the protests and arrests progressed, she used social networks to get information through news clips and to check statements from political leaders from both the ruling and opposition parties.

Shortcut Code

Mila P.*’s interest in Venezuelan politics came from an American blonde: Taylor Swift. «A girl made Taylor Swift-themed flannel with Edmundo González and Maria Corina and caught my attention. “I never thought I would see Taylor involved in any political activity.”

From then on, he began following several journalists on social networks to find out who the candidates were.

This is what happened to 15-year-old Laura S.*. She got her information through trend (Trending) With Taylor Swift as the theme, but when he found the information loose, he consulted his parents, who explained to him the disqualification of María Corina Machado, the reason why they did not allow Corina Yoris to register and who Edmundo was González.

Incentivized voting began to appear on content from influencers like Emely Barile and singer Danny Ocean two days before July 28. “On Tiktok, depending on the account you see, it can be reliable or unreliable, and I’ll check the comments to find out if it’s misleading because some people don’t report neutrally what’s going on. “I didn’t search on Google, I only knew about it through TikTok until I asked my parents,” he said.

Playing with reality

Explaining any political event in Venezuela is difficult for outsiders, old or young, and confusing even for those in the know. But for teenagers, the basic premise is that less is more.

That’s why interpretations of Venezuela’s elections have found fertile space My Worldthe “open world” building video game, dominates the top five most-played games in the world: more than 600 million people.

Camila D*, 16, said millions of people play Minecraft, including those living in Venezuela, but also children of Venezuelan immigrants or teenagers who have recently immigrated, who use the space to explain to others what is happening to them in Venezuela in recent days at home. “That’s how it became viral and went global,” he said.

María V.*, 15 years old, plays Roblox He also commented that protesting in games is a strange but safe way to express yourself. “It’s the only way people can safely protest.” He and some of his companions mentioned the country’s political situation through games. Call of Duty Ghosts.

The additional restrictions on young people stem from parents’ fear of their children Hundreds of young people arbitrarily detainedcausing the WhatsApp group to become more politically charged. Until they began to feel the fear more closely. “If they see the status and check the phone, they might put the person in jail,” so they put that aside as well and deleted the chat.

That’s why they continue to browse the sea of ​​pill content that TikTok and Instagram offer. When they need to ask more questions, they ask their parents. But most of their information comes through WhatsApp channels, YouTube clips, and content displayed by algorithms.

“I learned everything through TikTok about the elections, the demonstrations, what the system is like, all these things,” María V* explains.

They can release the freedom of self-expression in video games, but they have lost it on social networks. Gaby G*, 17, said that in the days before the elections, she often watched, forwarded and commented on TikTok videos with humorous political content. But since recent events and the threat of surveillance of state publications, he no longer comments collectively on these topics, especially after the order issued by ruler Nicolas Maduro to stop using applications such as Whatsapp.

Andrea M* reported that after July 29, she shared news, statements and updates about the election on her WhatsApp status, but stopped sharing for security reasons. He added: “I wrote in my status what I found out and what I thought about the whole situation, and then when they started saying that they were taking action against those who spread the information, I stopped doing it.”

In recent days, Mila P* has spoken about the political situation in Venezuela in a WhatsApp group she has set up with friends. “Although we have not been on the streets since the 28th, we are afraid that they will look for us at home because we uploaded something to the states. “Out of fear, we no longer upload anything.”

***

Screenwriters: Gabriela Rojas, Dani Pacheco and Isabella González