TikTok is providing a place for many Turkish labourers to share their working realities. Blending comedy, music, and an insight into labour hardship, the videos have been going viral with the country’s 19.2 million users, as well as also having international reach. “We have no union, no insurance, nobody to defend our rights,” says Ahmet İstek, TikTokker and lentil collector. “So we use TikTok to criticise our work conditions and show how difficult it is to earn a living.” With Turkey ranked as one of the ten worst countries for workers, the videos could help highlight the realities of manual labour in Turkey, resulting in pressure being applied on the government to improve working conditions.

People are now using TikTok for everything from sharing a relationship break-up to career development. Similar to the Turkish example, American labour activists are also using TikTok as a way to engage segments of the US workforce that aren’t involved in union politics. As people become increasingly aware of wealth inequality, the risks faced by essential and frontline workers, and the gig economy more generally, it’s heightening their engagement in labour politics. What's being evidenced on TikTok is that, as long as the formula for creating the content is correct for the platform, any topic or issue has a place where people and the media will take notice.