正如民主党众议员杰夫·杰克逊自己所说，他上任还不到一年。但他已经是抖音最受欢迎的国会议员，他对国会的思考，包括该机构的表演性质，已经被观看了数百万次。
在一个截至周五被观看了450万次的病毒视频中，这位新生代表坦率地讲述了他在国会山的经历，他说，“国会中大多数真正愤怒的声音完全是装出来的。”
“在公开会议上表现得像疯子一样的那些人，在非公开会议上突然变得冷静和理性。为什么?因为在非公开会议中没有任何摄像头，所以他们的动机是不同的，”他在最近补充道录像。“我所看到的是，国会议员被负面激励所包围。不良行为有奖励。”
杰克逊认为，同样的激励结构也影响着媒体，政客和媒体都在努力吸引人们的注意力。
“现代媒体和现代政治家学到的最重要的事情是，如果他们能让你生气，他们就会抓住你的注意力，”他后来在视频中说。
“对于那些希望看到政治不那么像WWE的人，我会让你们保持关注，”他总结道。
甚至在就职之前，杰克逊就已经在抖音上发帖，自2021年初以来一直在该平台上保持存在。但他最近在该应用程序上获得了数千名粉丝，此前他发布了一段视频，详细介绍了宣誓就职和接受委员会分配的过程。他的视频题材广泛，涉及乌克兰、米非司酮流产丸最近的国会听证会上，抖音首席执行官周寿子提供了证词。
母公司字节跳动为中国所有的抖音吸引了两党对抗共和党和民主党州长禁止应用程序出于安全考虑。两党成员都有推动立法这将允许总统乔·拜登在联邦层面禁止该应用程序。包括众议员贾马尔·鲍曼在内的少数民主党人抵抗引用第一修正案来禁止这个应用的想法。
Freshman Democrat says angriest voices in Congress are ‘faking it’
Rep. Jeff Jackson, D-N.C., has only been in office less than a year, as he himself notes. But he is already the most followed congressman on TikTok -- and his musings about Congress, including the institution’s performative nature, have been viewed millions of times.
In one viral video, viewed 4.5 million times as of Friday, the freshman representative gives an unvarnished perspective of his time on Capitol Hill, saying, "Most of the really angry voices in Congress are totally faking it."
"The same people who act like maniacs during the open meetings are suddenly calm and rational during the closed ones. Why? Because there aren't any cameras in the closed meetings, so their incentives are different," he adds in the recent video. "What I've seen is that members of Congress are surrounded by negative incentives. There are rewards for bad behavior."
Jackson argued the same incentive structure affects the press, with both politicians and media outlets jockeying to hold people’s attention.
"The big thing that modern media and modern politicians have learned is that if they can keep you angry, they'll hold your attention," he said later in the video.
"For those who want to see politics look less like WWE, I will keep you posted," he concluded.
Even before taking office, Jackson was been posting on TikTok, maintaining a presence on the platform since early 2021. But he recently gained thousands of followers on the app after posting a video detailing the process of being sworn into office and receiving committee assignments. His videos range in subject matter, touching on topics such as Ukraine, abortion pill mifepristone and the recent congressional hearing featuring testimony from TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.
TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is China-owned, has attracted bipartisan backlash, with both Republican and Democratic governors banning the app from government devices due to security concerns. Members of both parties have pushed legislation that would allow President Joe Biden to ban the app at the federal level. A handful of Democrats, including Rep. Jamaal Bowman, have resisted the notion of banning the app, citing First Amendment concerns.
