Mindless TikTok-scrolling is as damaging to environment as your car's emissions

A recent analysis estimates that TikTok’s annual carbon footprint may exceed that of Greece, with the average user generating greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to driving an extra 200 kilometers in a gas-powered car each year.

An article by The Guardian has published the estimates generated by Greenly, a carbon accounting consultancy based in Paris, which show that the trending social media platform’s 2023 emissions in the US, UK, and France alone amounted to around 7.6 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent (CO2e). Those levels surpass those of platforms such as Twitter/X and Snapchat in the same regions.

With a global user base of 1 billion accounts, TikTok’s carbon footprint is slightly higher than that of rival Instagram’s, even though the latter has almost double the number of users. This difference is attributed to TikTok’s unique addictiveness: the average user spends 45.5 minutes per day on the app, compared to Instagram's 30.6 minutes.

“The whole algorithm is built around the massification of videos,” said Greenly’s CEO Alexis Normand, noting that TikTok’s addictive nature leads to users generating a larger individual carbon footprint.

Given that users in the US, UK, and France represent just under 15% of TikTok’s global audience, the platform’s total carbon footprint is estimated to be around 50 million metric tons of CO2e. This figure doesn’t account for other sources of emissions, such as those from office spaces and employee commuting, meaning the true carbon footprint could be higher. For comparison, Greece’s emissions for 2023 were 51.67 million metric tons.

TikTok users also rank second in terms of emissions per minute of use on social media, just after YouTube. On average, one minute of TikTok usage produces 2.921 grams of CO2e, while YouTube generates 2.923 grams, and Instagram 2.912 grams. Despite these small differences, TikTok users have the highest yearly emissions due to the volume of content and longer usage times. The average TikTok user emits 48.49 kg of CO2e annually, while YouTube users emit 40.17 kg and Instagram users 32.52 kg. According to the article, these outputs translates to the equivalent of driving 200 kilometers (TikTok), 160 kilometers (YouTube), and 130 kilometers (Instagram) in a gasoline-powered car.

The study calculated emissions per minute based on the energy used by data centers, which account for about 99% of the emissions, as well as the energy required to charge devices used to access the platforms.

TikTok's emissions data remains unclear, as the platform does not release detailed reports like other tech giants such as Meta and Google, which share their findings with the Carbon Disclosure Project. Other companies in the sector have made commitments to power their data centers with renewable energy, though the quality of these commitments varies. A Guardian investigation found that some tech companies used renewable energy credits (RECs) that allowed them to underreport emissions by approximately 662%.

TikTok has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2030, with its "Project Clover," launched in 2023, aimed at achieving this goal while improving data security. However, only one renewable energy-powered data center has been built so far: a €12 billion facility in Norway running entirely on renewable energy.

By Nazrin Sadigova