As Harris and Trump debated, social media had its own war

While tens of millions of Americans tuned in to watch the debate between Republican Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris on their television screens on Tuesday, a secondary battle played out on social media's smaller screens.

From the opening moment of the debate, Democrats seized on Harris' walk across the stage to shake Trump's hand and introduce herself, posting videos and photos.

"Kamala said you’re gonna shake my hand dammit!" social media user Adam James Smith posted on X, to over 68,000 likes.

Part of Vice-President Harris' debate plan was to goad Trump into saying things that could become viral social media clips, advisers said earlier, and the debate suggested that strategy paid off. However, Trump's campaign and online supporters quickly declared victory after the debate was over, claiming a win for the Republican former president.

Harris' sometimes bemused, sometimes alarmed, sometimes sceptical facial expressions as Trump cycled through a series of familiar falsehoods were quickly turned into memes. Trump's repetition of a false claim that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pet dogs and cats, though, probably inspired the most reaction.

"THEY'RE EATING THE DOGS," quickly trended on social media platform X, buoyed by thousands of posts — including many confused at the quote's relevance in a presidential debate, after Trump said "They're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats."

As the debate ended, Harris scored the ultimate online victory. "Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight," Taylor Swift said on Tuesday to her over 280 million Instagram followers. "I'm voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them."

The post already had over 4.3 million "likes" on Instagram as of late Tuesday, two hours after it was posted.

Social media is playing an even more significant role in this year's election cycle than it has in the past, political strategists say. Both the Democratic and Republican parties have drafted content creators, or influencers, to push information on their party's policies and their candidates.

"(Social media) both is what people think and shapes what people think," said Shannon McGregor, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Hussman School of Journalism and Media.

Overall, Trump far outperforms Harris and her campaign on followers. The Harris campaign's official Kamala HQ account has 1.3 million followers on X, compared to the Trump campaign's 2.4 million, for example. However, her campaign has received over 100 million "likes" on its videos on TikTok versus Trump's 44 million.

Trump declares 'big win'

On TikTok, Make America Great Again Inc, a Trump-supporting super PAC, also posted a series of victorious videos after the debate to its 3.6 million followers, including a clip from a CNN focus group in which a Pennsylvania voter said post-debate, "When facts come to facts, my life was better when Trump was in office."