‘Our experience is not an outlier. Countless studies have documented exactly what we saw: the algorithm disproportionately favours right-wing content.’
Meet George2006 and John1987, two young men who have recently joined TikTok... except they’re not really young men... they’re us. For the last few months we’ve been undercover to see if the TikTok algorithm is disproportionately pushing far-right content. Both accounts had different ages, were from different parts of the UK, and were created on different days, from different IP addresses. Yet within minutes, and without any inputs from us, the algorithm fed both accounts racist and islamophobic content. Why did this happen?
For those unfamiliar with how TikTok works, here’s a key distinction from other social media platforms. While it can be quite lonely on Facebook if you don’t follow your friends and colleagues, this has never been the case for TikTok. The ‘For Your Page’ (FYP) prepares content from the second you open the app- tailor-made for you. Tiktok’s infamous algorithm quickly learns - based on what you’ve liked, what you skip, and how long you watch a video - what kind of content engages you, and continues to feed you more of it.
However- we made sure to avoid that trap- we didn’t like any far-right content, nor follow any associated accounts. And yet- within minutes- the algorithm fed us right-wing videos. George’s account went live at 11:56 am in Kent. The first piece of political content he saw was a GB News video at 12:01pm, voicing concerns over immigration. Next up were multiple videos criticising the introduction of digital ID cards - some going as far as comparing them to George Orwell’s 1984-style surveillance. And the first politician that popped up on our FYP was - surprise, surprise - Nigel Farage...
