TikTok's algorithm has gained quite some infamy for serving you content that is eerily aligned with your interests, but new reporting suggests that the company has a secret system that allows it to make a video go viral by boosting its reach and pushing it into the For You feed. TikTok's algorithm has repeatedly been criticized for pushing users down a rabbit hole of addictive content that pleases their digital palate. However, research also suggests that it can guide people toward material preferred by the government and ruling parties, especially the Chinese Communist Party in its home market, where TikTok goes by the name Douyin.
The latest addition to TikTok's shady world of algorithmically-boosted content is "heating," a system that allegedly allows a certain group of TikTok employees to decide which videos go viral by enhancing its reach. "The heating feature refers to boosting videos into the For You feed through operation intervention to achieve a certain number of video views," says Forbes research, citing internal sources and documents. TikTok has reportedly deployed the "heating" system frequently to lure content creators and brands into partnerships by systematically exaggerating the number of views on their videos and helping them gain viral status.
It's Viral, But You May Never Know Why
In a nutshell, certain videos that appear in your For You feed are not necessarily there because they align with your interests. Instead, they appear on your timeline because TikTok wants you to view and engage with them. In doing so, TikTok is discreetly helping a particular influencer or brand reach a wider audience. In an online world where content engagement dictates how many sponsors you get and the heft of paychecks signed by advertisers, heating appears to be a magic recipe. It's also evident that TikTok's heating system has favored a lucky few entities without hundreds of millions of users ever knowing about its existence and the potential social media manipulation that originates from it.
Forbes' investigation suggests that TikTok employees have abused their access to the heating system to help videos garner millions of views. According to an internal document titled MINT Heating Playbook, the heating mechanism can be used to "promot[e] relevant videos that were missed by the recommendations algorithms" and "attract influencers." A TikTok spokesperson told Forbes that "heated" content only accounts for about .002% of videos in For You feed of users and that it is used to familiarize the TikTok community with famous people and rising content creators.
This isn't the first bombastic revelation of its kind. An investigation by ABC News surmised that TikTok's opaque algorithm dictates who and what political movements receive user attention. Research by the folks over at Within Health observed that TikTok could amplify content covering unsafe discourse around eating disorders. Bias towards suppressing and censoring certain content isn't an alien concept for TikTok watchers, either. With the heating expose, it appears that the very concept of virality has a hidden purpose that serves the material interests of the company and drives capital growth for a lucky few, while the general audience is under the impression that the viral content they're seeing on TikTok is popular for a legitimate reason.
Source: Forbes, ABC News, Within Health