Algorithmic humanitarianism: the International Organisation for Migration's (IOM) strategic use of TikTok to shape migration narratives in the platform age

Abstract

This study examines how the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) employs TikTok to construct migration narratives within a platform-governed communication environment. Drawing on a content analysis of 541 TikTok videos published between January 2020 and March 2025, the study investigates how institutional visibility, migrant representation, and humanitarian legitimacy are shaped through platform-specific affordances. Findings demonstrate that IOM predominantly utilises TikTok as an informational tool, framing migration through themes such as forced displacement, climate-induced mobility, human trafficking, and legal protection, while foregrounding migrants as resilient, rights-bearing agents rather than passive victims. However, this empowerment-oriented framing is not uniformly applied, as visibility is selectively distributed with limited representation of older migrants, persons with disabilities, and non-English-speaking groups, and IOM speaks predominantly about rather than with migrant voices. The analysis reveals that IOM adapts its communicative form to algorithmic imperatives while preserving its informational mandate, yet this coexists with tensions around representation and linguistic inclusivity. TikTok thus emerges as an algorithmic humanitarian arena in which institutional legitimacy is negotiated through visibility metrics rather than participatory representation. The article contributes to debates on digital humanitarianism by theorising how platform logics transform institutional communication and reconfigure the power to shape public understandings of global mobility.