Emergency official: TikTok ban poses challenge in reaching young people for hurricanes

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (FLV) – Florida Director of Emergency Management Kevin Guthrie said they are “still trying to figure out” how to reach younger audiences that use TikTok, given the state cannot broadcast on the platform due to legislation signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May.

Concerns have risen in recent years over TikTok’s links to the Chinese Communist Party.

During a Monday evening livestream on Mikes Weather Page, founder Mike Boylan and Guthrie discussed Hurricane Idalia and the reach of social media.

As of Tuesday morning, Hurricane Idalia is expected to make landfall as a Category 3 storm by Wednesday.

“For us, with a state agency, because of who owns Tiktok and the country that’s behind TikTok, we cannot broadcast on TikTok. So, we’ve got to figure that out. How do we engage that 20-something-year-old community that’s here at the colleges?” Guthrie said.

DeSantis signed legislation to ban TikTok or other apps owned by “foreign countries of concern” from government devices during the last legislative session.

Guthrie mentioned his stepson as an example, who is at Florida Atlantic University.

“If it’s not on TikTok, he doesn’t know about it,” Guthrie said.

Guthrie said they have a “really good working relationship” with Florida State University and Florida A&M University in Tallahassee.

“I know that some emergency managers have better relationships at the state level with their college students, but even down into high school … They may not be, to your point, watching social media, they’re watching Netflix and Hulu and all this other stuff, and they’re just not getting the traditional forms of communication,” Guthrie said.

“I don’t know how we fix that,” he said.

The state has also banned TikTok from public university-owned devices and networks.

During Hurricane Ian in 2022, TikTok clips using hashtag #HurricaneIan reportedly topped 3.5 billion views.

According to analytics from TikTok, in the last 7 days, the hashtag #Idalia has over 5 million views, and hashtag #TropicalStormIdalia has over 2 million views.

About 65% of users viewing the hashtag were under the age of 34. Only 35% were over the age of 35.

Mike’s Weather Page has over 222,000 followers on TikTok. He posts daily updates on Hurricane Idalia, some of which have reached up to 900,000 views per video.

Mike’s Weather Page has over 1.4 million followers on Facebook, 130,000 followers on Instagram, 55,000 on Youtube and 100,000 on Twitter.

“I’m proud to say, but TikTok, I’ve got almost a quarter million followers now. Every one of my updates, I’ve hit 600,000 views,” Boylan told Guthrie.

Boylan said the engagement on TikTok is “unbelievable.”

“And more people are telling me that’s the only source of news and when I tell people that aren’t on it, they’re like, what? So you’re right, figuring out a way to get info information – not the traditional ways – you know,” Boylan said.

Boylan said there’s also a lot of “hype” and people “don’t know who to believe.”

“There’s going to be a segment of the community that wants to sensationalize it, and hype it up to something that is not, but at the same time that does not help us at all when we need to get that message out, right? We don’t want to cry wolf, but we need to get messages out,” Guthrie said.

Guthrie said local municipal emergency managers should be giving people “hyper accurate forecasts.”

“Here’s the thing, if they’re not, then what I would do is, contact your local weather forecasting office, contact your local meteorologists, that you deal with on television and say, hey, I want to know what’s going on here,” Guthrie said.

For updated forecasts, visit the National Hurricane Center and follow local county emergency management for possible evacuations in your area.