Is TikTok a new space for political discussion structured by the news media?

TikTok recently established itself as a main player in the social media ecosystem, attracting many users who share news and comment on it from a political perspective. Based on a corpus of 3,900 videos posted by 84 accounts, and 798,824 comments, this article examines the extent to which TikTok can constitute a new space for political discussion. It shows that the existence of this space depends on actors from traditional media who have a strong production capacity and are able to put topics on the agenda, but that it is the actors most deeply rooted in digital culture who generate the most interaction. To study the political content of the discussions, a specific case study on the issue of road violence was analysed, revealing various discursive dynamics depending on the type of videos commented on. These discussions, characterized by polarization, brutalization and hate, are not conducive to the emergence of sustainable spaces for interaction, whether conflictual or not.