If TikTok likes were votes, a Labor backbencher would be prime minister and his party would already have claimed election victory.
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The Liberal, Labor and Greens parties, along with the Independents, are all campaigning on the social media platform of choice for young Australians ahead of the May 21 poll.
While the Liberals have a minimal presence with just 2,397 followers, Prime Minister Scott Morrison's personal account has nearly 60,000.
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But it is Victorian Labor MP Julian Hill's 147,500 followers and 2.2 million likes that make him the biggest Australian political entity on TikTok.
The video platform is shaping up to be an important space to reach young and first-time voters as more than 36 per cent of its Australian users are aged 18 to 24.
There are almost 1.7 million voters in that age bracket, accounting for for roughly 10 per cent of all voters, according to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).
Going by the numbers, the Labor Party is leaps and bounds ahead of all the competition in terms of followers, views and like.
Mr Hill enjoys particular success with his conversational-style videos. The ALP's official account has been posting a variety of pop culture-influenced clips, many of which have gone viral, to garner 74,100 followers and 1.5 million likes.
In contrast, the Liberal Party's account seems to be struggling to capture the TikTok zeitgeist and many of its videos struggle to get more than 5,000 views.
Even Mr Morrison's follower-to-like ratio indicates low engagement among followers.
Lastly, the Greens have 18,000 followers and 90,000 likes but they are being beaten by Senator Jacqui Lambie, who has almost 22,000 followers.
The Nationals do not appear to have a TikTok presence.
Why is Labor ahead?
The disparity between the parties' performance can be explained by how early they joined TikTok and by the content that they post.
A relatively early adopter of TikTok, the ALP posted its first video in February 2021, while the Liberals and Greens both joined in April 2022 - more than a year later.
Labor's head start allowed it to establish a meme-heavy content niche, with videos presenting the opposition leader as "Alpha Albo" or photoshopping Anthony Albanese's face onto Iron Man.
Meanwhile, the Liberals and Greens are still working to find their footing with content on the platform; they're still warming up in the final leg of the race.
The Liberals' videos consist largely of clips of perceived gaffes by Mr Albanese and repurposed movie clips that attract low view numbers.
On the Greens' account are clips of party leader Adam Bandt slamming the major parties and some videos addressing climate change, an important issue for young Australians. Although just 20 videos have been posted in total.
The TikTok gap between each party is obvious in a basic analysis of their most viewed videos. Labor's most viewed video has 2.5 million views, the Greens' has 305,000 views, while Liberals' has just 118,000.
Combating misinformation
Misinformation on TikTok is a key concern given the sheer volume of federal election content posted by both political entities and voters.
TikTok announced it had partnered with Australian Associated Press (AAP) to fact-check election content in April.
All election videos on TikTok also link to an in-app election guide which was created in collaboration with the AEC.
AEC director of digital engagement Evan Ekin-Smyth said they were working with TikTok to "preserve election integrity".
"The hub will help Australian voters on TikTok access credible, reliable information to enrol and vote," Mr Ekin-Smyth said in a statement.