From Mexico to US: The 'American Dream' sold on TikTok

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In a recent investigation, The Guardian discusses the nature of some video content on TikTok, which is accused of targeting migrants and selling the "American dream".

A TikTok video, reported by The Guardian, is a travel blog that took an unexpected turn, broadcasting the user in a camp, traveling by horseback, and eventually scaling what he refers to as "la famosa frontera de la muerte" or "the famous border of death" between the United States and Mexico.

“We are ready to climb the wall and run like deer,” he narrates in Spanish over dark images that appear to show him and his companions climbing the border wall. “Run, buddy run or immigration will catch you,” he later says.

The video, which appears to show one young man's voyage from Ecuador to America, has been saved 10,000 times and has over 170,000 likes and about 2,500 comments, the vast majority of which are from individuals requesting additional information from him. "How much money did you spend, and when did you spend it?" one inquires.

“Viajes a USA” or “Travel to the US.” That’s all you have to search to find a not-so-hidden corner of TikTok largely populated by videos and posts about migration, specifically from Latin America to the US.

Hungry coyotes

Some of the posts appear to be from people documenting their own migratory trips, such as the one from Ecuador. However, several claim to provide services and guidance to people looking to immigrate from nations such as Guatemala, Mexico, Ecuador, and Honduras.

It's difficult to discern which of these posts are genuine "coyotes" or human smugglers and which are scams. In either situation, there is a risk of serious harm, and experts are concerned that these movies are spreading unchecked on the platform.

TikTok claims it "strictly prohibits this content," but it doesn't indicate whether that covers posts about people's migrations or videos offering to help individuals cross the US-Mexico border. “TikTok would immediately remove it from our platform and ban the account,” said TikTok Spokesperson AB Obi-Okoye. “We use a combination of people and technology to protect our community and partner with intelligence firms in this area to further bolster our defenses.”

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However, typing “viajes” into the TikTok search bar alone will surface suggestions like “viajes seguros a USA” or “viajes a USA garantizado,” which mean “travel safely to the US” or “travel to the US guaranteed.”

The posts that supply services are usually straightforward. They frequently contain foggy imagery of a voyage or a US cityscape, which is usually overlaid with a message assuring customers that the service is not a hoax. Some posts go so far as to reveal videos and photos of persons who have allegedly successfully crossed the border with the assistance of those behind the account.

Typically, the videos do not provide much information and instead direct users to contact the account via private messages or WhatsApp.

Role of human smugglers

Many of the accounts do not overtly market their services as illegal, but they strongly imply they assist people without visas or documentation in crossing the border. Others are more overt: one account shared a video with a picture of the American and Ecuadorian flags, with the caption "viajes seguros y sin estafas," or "travel safely and no scam," with the song "El Illegal" by Ecuadorian singer Bayron Caicedo playing in the background.

Quantifying the prevalence of these types of posts on TikTok is challenging since, unlike firms like Twitter and Meta, the site does not provide external tools that allow researchers to audit or analyze its data.

The Guardian presented eight examples of posts selling border crossing services, and Obi-Okoye stated the company removed them. Nonetheless, when searching for these terms, dozens of comparable films appear, including some that were posted within the last week.

Studies on human smugglers’ use of social media by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), the research arm of watchdog group the Campaign for Accountability, concluded that TikTok initially was primarily utilized as a video creation platform, while Facebook was the platform of choice for these organizations to recruit clients.

Facebook groups and posts from people representing themselves as coyotes would include videos created on and then downloaded from TikTok, but the video app was less frequently used by migrants to engage directly with the services.

“Human smugglers that appeared to be connected to cartels were reposting TikTok videos to Facebook groups for migrants essentially laying out their journey to prove that they were in fact taking people across this route,” said Katie Paul, the director of TTP. “It’s free advertisement for their services, essentially.”

TikTok influence on Latin America 

TikTok, which has over 1 billion monthly active users worldwide, has expanded throughout Latin America over the last four years. According to market research firm eMarketer, the site has topped 100 million members in Latin America, making it the region's third largest social network after Instagram and Facebook.

Every day, new posts regarding Latin American migration are uploaded to TikTok, and unlike on Facebook, where they are typically found in groups rather than pushed into people's feeds, the TikTok posts are visible to everybody.

One of the most popular postings on the subject has received over 70,000 likes and over 5,000 comments and has been saved about 5,000 times. A typical video on the subject receives at least 100 likes and a dozen comments.

The organic engagement on these posts is high, indicating that the site is no longer only a video-producing medium for these accounts. According to a survey of more than 50 TikTok users, the majority of commenters wanted more information.

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In at least five cases that The Guardian observed, the creator responded with some information, including travel routes. In one case the account holder detailed the entire route and the price: “From Guatemala to Tapachula by bus. From there by plane to the Juarez border, walk 15 minutes to the TX pass and then to Dallas. $13,500 dollars.”

Only a handful of commenters publicly questioned the posts' veracity. When this happened, accounts either disregarded the criticism or defended themselves. "That's what they all say, and when you come there, things are no longer the way they say to you," one commenter remarked in response to a video that suggested the producers enable people to travel securely to the US without trudging in the desert.

The creator responded, “With us, it’s different. We do not carry large quantities of people and we do not pass them from hand to hand as others do.”

TikTok; a natural fit 

According to Abbie Richards, a TikTok disinformation and extremism researcher, TikTok is a fairly logical fit for messages targeting migrants, whether they're misinformation, frauds, or genuine offers to ferry people across the border. TikTok makes it simple to create, share, and discover videos.

“It’s quite simple,” she said. “TikTok is a really good tool for marketing in an organic content sense where you can create content that will find the targeted demographic itself. The algorithm does the work for you in a lot of ways.”

The rules of service of TikTok prohibit content that promotes criminal conduct such as human exploitation, which includes "human smuggling". TikTok's chief operating officer, Vanessa Pappas, testified before the US Senate Homeland Security Committee that the firm uses a combination of technology and human moderators to examine posts for content violations.

One user claimed to have traveled with "coyotes" who took her phone so she couldn't capture anything and treated everyone who traveled with them poorly. Commenters confirmed her allegations, claiming that crossing the Mexican border was the most difficult aspect of their journey.

They claim that addressing migration issues on social platforms will be difficult as long as the cultural dialogue off-platform remains ambiguous.

“Our world is heating up, so many people are living in precarious situations, so they’re not going to stop coming unless we have a global conversation about how we create a more just world and make sure that our migration processes are dignified and we’re not really having those conversations,” Molnar said.