2025 State of Social

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*This report is curated using Truescope’s proprietary Deep Research tool.

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Dominant Socio-Political Themes for 2025

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General Elections 2025 and Political Accountability - Spotlight on incumbent’s electoral performance, 5G leadership succession, and the political accountability of Workers’ Party and former LO Pritam Singh.

Cost of Living & Housing Concerns - Rising living costs sharpened public focus on HDB affordability, retirement adequacy, and wealth inequality.

Immigration & Foreign Workers - Concerns over job competition, employment pass policies, deeper social integration and xenophobia concerns.

Emerged Social Risks (eg: Vaping and Scams) - Stories around vaping, Kpods, and scams heightened public concerns over their social impact over vulnerable groups, such as the youths and the elderly.

TikTok’s extraordinary engagement efficiency represents a fundamental shift in how Singapore audiences consume and interact with social content.

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TikTok generated nearly half of all engagement with less than 10% of content volume.

This signifies a shift towards a consumption preference for short-form video over traditional text and image posts.

While passive consumption (likes) dominate all platforms, TikTok and Instagram amplify, while Facebook hosts debates and discussions.

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Social media platforms are hotbeds for public discourse around politics and news, and active of social media conversations monitoring and management will be crucial.

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Are they on your radar?

To monitor or engage:

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The Case for TikTok

TikTok potential ad reach increased by about 11.5% from end 2024 to late 2025

Posts increased by 20% from H1 to H2, but engagements increased exponentially by 100+%

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Keeping track of the fastest growing sociopolitical channels in Singapore.

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The Case for MustShareNews TikTok

Keeping track of the fastest growing sociopolitical channel in Singapore

MustShareNews TikTok published 1,542 posts that generated 183.7 million total engagements (likes, comments, shares) and reached an audience of 684 million views across the year.

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Why Engagement Rate Increased Dramatically

Algorithm Execution

• Hashtags evolved from broad discovery #fyp #foryou to Singapore targeting #sgfyp #fypsg #tiktoksg, then niche tags #dogsoftiktok #catsoftiktok #ambulance. Better targeting likely improved completion rates, triggering more algorithmic distribution
• Consistent cadence of 3 to 5 posts daily
• Weekends leaned into lighter, shareable content

Content Formula Refinement

• Hook 0 to 3 seconds: shocking or intriguing visual
• Context 3 to 8 seconds: text overlay or voiceover explaining what is happening
• Payoff 8 to 15 seconds: resolution or cliffhanger
• Caption CTA: question or statement designed to spark comments

Geographic Diversification

• Pan Asian coverage created multiple viral pathways
• China: 166 posts, mix of heartwarming and controversial
• Southeast Asia: 255 plus posts across Malaysia Thailand Philippines Indonesia Singapore
• Global: 50 plus posts across USA Australia Europe
• Benefits: multi market virality, time zone driven engagement flow, cultural variety preventing fatigue

Emotional Intelligence

• Strong use of emotionally resonant moments to drive shares and comments
• Positive drivers: reunions and homecomings eg Philippines reunion 4.19M engagements / animal rescues eg Indonesian cat 1.31M engagements
• Negative drivers: injustice and moral outrage eg Taiwan passenger 12.56M engagements, cultural violations / Thailand temple 12.49M engagements

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#HiddenGems of TikTok

TikTok is a market of rapid evolution - The H1 to H2 comparison reveals a market in rapid evolution, with successful pages achieving engagement rate improvements ranging from 60% to nearly 300% while unsuccessful pages experienced declines of similar magnitude.

Detractor account (TOC, Wakeup), experienced negative H2 growth - Post-election fatigue, accounts may lack production budgets for TikTok-native formats.

Independent creators and opposition parties cannot match the algorithmic advantages enjoyed by ST, CNA, Mothership, AsiaOne - Credentialed journalist verification, production resources, breaking news speed and algo trust. These publishers collectively demonstrated that news content could achieve engagement rates comparable to or exceeding entertainment-focused creators, challenging assumptions about TikTok as primarily an entertainment platform.

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2025 Shifts in Public Attention, Influence and Online Discourse

Singaporeans engage beyond national narratives - Audiences consistently interact with regional content, signaling strong identification with Southeast Asia rather than purely domestic narratives.

People outform organisations - Individual voices consistently outperform organisational accounts, changing how influence and trust are built online.

Visual content is no longer optional - Text heavy posts are losing traction rapidly. Video and strong visuals now determine whether content is seen, shared and discussed.

The platform power shift is accelerating - TikTok delivers very strong attention relative to volume, reflecting changing consumption preferences.

Impact cannot be derived from engagement alone - Deciphering sentiments by platforms, while weighting performance by the depth of discourse and and influence will reveal deeper nuances of public perception.

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Case Study 1

Revealing Layered Public Sentiment

Through Platform-Level Analysis:

Smartphone Ban in Secondary Schools from 2026

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The smartphone ban triggered active discussions across social media, particularly on Facebook and Tiktok.

In late 2025, Ministry of Education (MOE) announced the stricter smartphone and smartwatch ban for secondary schools. This gained mixed reaction from the public across Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit.

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Looking Beyond Topline Sentiment Reveals Nuanced Public Responses Across Platforms

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Social media discourse can uncover layered and nuanced concerns, valuable for implementation considerations.

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On IG, FB and TikTok, nuances in sentiment underpin the importance of examining varied perspectives across platforms

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Forums Add Further Valuable Depth by Surfacing More Critical Perspectives on the Smartphone Ban

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Key Learnings

Platform-specific nuances matter - In the smartphone ban discussion, the nature of concerns varies by platform, reflecting different audience profiles A one-size-fits-all reading of sentiment risks missing these nuances

Forums add a critical depth layer beyond mainstream sentiment - Forum discussions contribute valuable depth by surfacing more critical perspectives that may not appear on mainstream platforms, but are important for understanding longer-term concerns.

Different platforms require different communication approaches - Different platforms surface different audience needs, as they also reflect distinct audience demographics. Understanding these audience profiles and attuning messaging by platform is key to leverage impact across different social media channels.

Platform-level monitoring enables earlier issue detection - Even when overall sentiment appears positive, monitoring sentiment by platform helps identify emerging concerns early, allowing them to be addressed before they escalate.

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Case Study 2

Why Monitoring Public Sentiment Matters:

The Anti-Vaping Campaign

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Why Monitoring Public Sentiment Matters: From Early Risk Detection to Policy Validation and Ongoing Governance.

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Health Sciences Authority (HSA) emerged as the campaign's lead agency with 2,226 mentions, positioning itself as the primary enforcement and awareness body. HSA's visibility peaked during the blitz period with high-profile operations including the "surprise lunchtime operation" at Singapore's CBD that generated 222 mentions alone.

Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) contributed 963 mentions, focusing on the intersection of vaping and drug enforcement.

Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) recorded 298 mentions, concentrated around border enforcement. ICA's intensified checks at Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints during the year-end school holidays generated significant coverage.

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Minister (MOH) Ong Ye Kung dominated political coverage with 985 mentions, positioning himself as the campaign's public face. His visibility peaked during the blitz period, with 809 mentions, when he announced tougher penalties and enforcement measures. The sentiment suggesting his messaging was received as appropriate and measured

Minister (MHA) K. Shanmugam received 678 mentions reflecting his role overseeing enforcement agencies including CNB and ICA. Sentiments indicates public acceptance of the enforcement approach.

Minister (MND) Desmond Lee garnered 313 mentions, primarily related to community-level enforcement and public housing estate operations. Sentiment reflects public concerns about enforcement in residential areas.

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From Vaping to Kpods: Public Sentiment Surfaced Early Calls for Intervention.

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Government Crackdowns: Public Sentiment Validated the Need for Strong and Visible Enforcement.

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Public Expectations Continue to Evolve: Ongoing Monitoring Remains Critical.

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Key Learnings

Balanced Enforcement-Awareness Approach - The campaign successfully balanced punitive enforcement with supportive awareness messaging. While prosecutions and seizures dominated headlines, parallel campaigns emphasized quit support and voluntary help-seeking. This dual approach avoided pure criminalization while maintaining deterrence.

Coordinated Efforts Moved the Needle - Engagement numbers during Jul/Aug did spike awareness and engagement of Vaping as an issue by up to 8X compared to previous months. The campaign demonstrated exceptional coordination across enforcement agencies. The July-August blitz concentrated resources during a critical window, generating sustained public attention while maintaining operational effectiveness. The phrase "joint enforcement operations" appeared consistently throughout the campaign.

Sustained Post-Blitz Pressure - Unlike typical enforcement campaigns that fade after initial intensity, the anti-vaping effort maintained elevated activity through year-end. Post-blitz mention volume remained triple pre-blitz levels, indicating sustained government commitment and continued public awareness.