#Fintok and Financial Regulation
By Nikita Aggarwal, D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye & Christopher Odinet. Social media platforms are becoming an increasingly important site for consumer finance. This phenomenon is referred to as “FinTok,” a reference to the “#fintok” hashtag that often identifies financial content on TikTok, a popular social media platform. This Essay examines the new methodological possibilities for consumer financial regulation due to FinTok. It argues that FinTok content offers a novel and valuable source of data for identifying emerging fintech trends and associated consumer risks. As such, financial regulators should use FinTok content analysis—and social media content analysis more broadly—as an additional method for the supervision and regulation of consumer financial markets. This Essay test-drives this method using audiovisual content from TikTok in which consumers discuss their experience with “buy now, pay…