UK Finfluencers on TikTok: A Longitudinal Analysis of Content, Engagement, and Disclaimer Practices

Jul 16, 2026

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The rise of social media financial influencers (finfluencers) is reshaping how financial information reaches broad, often inexperienced audiences, raising concerns about reliability and the adequacy of risk disclosures. Using TikTok’s Research API, a longitudinal study analyzes UK finfluencer content, engagement dynamics, disclaimer practices, audience sentiment, and network structure across 13,215 videos and 104,097 comments (Apr–Sep 2024) plus a follow-up dataset (Oct 2025–Mar 2026). Topic modeling identifies four themes, while sentiment is mainly neutral-to-positive and duration shows negligible impact on engagement. Risk disclaimers are relatively rare and concentrated in trading-related content, informing consumer-protection and standardized disclosure design implications.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

Abstract

Introduction

Research Questions

Our Contributions

arXiv :2607 .05203v 1 [ cs . SI] 6 Jul 2026 UK Finfluencers on TikTok: A Longitudinal Analysis of Content, Engagement, and Disclaimer Practices Essam Ghadafi 1 and Panagiotis Andriotis2 1 School of Computing, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK [essam.ghadafi@newcastle.ac.uk](essam.ghadafi@newcastle.ac.uk) 2 Department of Computer Science, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK [p.andriotis@bham.ac.uk](p.andriotis@bham.ac.uk) Abstract. The rise of social media financial influencers (finfluencers) has transformed how financial information is disseminated to broad and often inexperienced audiences. While these creators may contribute to financial literacy, concerns remain regarding the reliability of their content and the adequacy of risk disclosures. Using data collected through TikTok’s Research API, we analyze UK finfluencer content, engagement dynamics, disclaimer practices, audience sentiment, and network structure. The primary dataset comprises 13,215 videos and 104,097 comments posted by 71 UK-based finfluencers between April and September 2024, while a follow-up dataset covering October 2025 to March 2026 enables longitudinal analysis of disclaimer practices, engagement trends, and hashtag usage. Using topic modeling, we identify four dominant themes: Entrepreneurship & Side Hustles, Property Investing, Active Trading, and Saving & Budgeting. Sentiment analysis of audience comments reveals predominantly neutral-to-positive responses, while engagement analysis shows only a negligible association between video duration and engagement rate. Social network analysis indicates a collaborative ecosystem in which mid-tier finfluencers frequently act as bridges between creator groups. Explicit disclaimers and risk-related language remain relatively uncommon overall and are concentrated primarily in trading-related content. The findings highlight challenges related to financial transparency and disclosure practices within short-form financial content ecosystems. We discuss implications for consumer protection and the design of clearer and more standardized financial risk disclosures on social media platforms. 1 Introduction The rise of social media has transformed the dissemination of financial information, with so-called financial influencers (or for short finfluencers) playing an increasingly significant role in shaping public investment behaviour. Platforms such as TikTok and Instagram have become key sources of financial content, 2 Essam Ghadafi and Panagiotis Andriotis where influencers promote investment strategies, trading platforms, and cryptocurrency ventures to wide audiences, often without proper regulatory oversight [20,22] . While these influencers have the potential to democratise access to financial knowledge, concerns over misinformation, misleading promotions, and the risk of financial harm have drawn growing scrutiny from regulators. In response to these challenges, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has strengthened its oversight of financial promotions on social media, emphasising that all investment-related content must be fair, clear, and not misleading. Recent enforcement actions, including interviews under caution and legal proceedings against finfluencers, signal a move towards stricter regulation [9] . This paper analyzes finfluencer content, disclaimers, topics, and audience sentiment to assess how financial advice, marketing, and regulation interact in digital spaces. TikTok remains one of the world’s most popular social media platforms, recording 773 million downloads in 2024 [7] . Previous research has examined influencer marketing effectiveness on TikTok, often focusing on entertainmentoriented traits such as humour and originality (e.g., [2]), as well as the platform’s structural impact on creative labour and content commodification [13] . Our study examines UK TikTok finfluencers, analysing their content, engagement, audience interactions, and

FAQs

What data sources and time periods does the study use to analyze UK TikTok finfluencers?

The study uses TikTok’s Research API and analyzes a primary dataset covering April to September 2024 (13,215 videos and 104,097 comments) and a follow-up dataset covering October 2025 to March 2026.

What major content themes are identified in UK finfluencer videos?

Topic modeling identifies four dominant themes: Entrepreneurship & Side Hustles, Property Investing, Active Trading, and Saving & Budgeting.

How common are explicit disclaimers and risk-related language in the finfluencer content?

Explicit disclaimers and risk-related language are relatively uncommon overall, and they are concentrated primarily in trading-related content.

Jul 16, 2026

Upload by Oliver