ql-align-justify">This practice is characterized by several key communicative features. First, it is multimodal, combining video, text overlays, audio, and hashtags to communicate critique in engaging and accessible ways. Second, it is participatory and dialogic: social media users do not merely consume information but actively respond through comments, duets, and remixes, creating a networked public discourse. Research on TikTok discourse around the program shows a clear tension between official optimistic narratives and critical public responses highlighting inequality and dissatisfaction. Third, communication is algorithmically mediated, meaning that visibility and influence are shaped by platform dynamics rather than traditional gatekeepers. Finally, this practice is performative and affective, as users employ humor, satire, and emotional storytelling to amplify political critique, making complex policy issues more relatable and viral.

The implications for literacy pedagogy are significant. Drawing on Kalantzis and Cope’s concept of multiliteracies, this example demonstrates that literacy education must move beyond print-based skills toward multimodal, digital, and critical literacy practices. Social media users need to learn how to create, interpret, and evaluate content across platforms like TikTok, including understanding how algorithms influence visibility and meaning. Additionally, following Street’s ideological model of literacy, educators must help students critically examine how power, ideology, and representation operate in digital discourse such as questioning whose voices are amplified or marginalized in discussions about national policies.

Ultimately, online activism on TikTok illustrates that literacy today is not only about communication but also about civic participation and social critique, requiring pedagogies that empower learners as active, critical, and ethical meaning-makers in digital public spaces.

Online Activism and Multimodal Literacy: TikTok as a Platform for Public Critique