TikTok appears to be suppressing content that China's government doesn't approve of, according to researchers who found huge differences in the volume of posts on certain subjects when they compared TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese company, to Instagram. The Network Contagion Research Institute researchers at Rutgers University found that on topics like #TaylorSwift, there was an average of 2.2 posts on Instagram for every one on TikTok, in line with Instagram's larger user base, the New York Times reports. But when it came to content suppressed in China, there was a very different ratio. For every 206 posts with the hashtag #HongKongProtests on Instagram, there was one on TikTok, according to the institute's report on the platform's "anomalies."
For #TiananmenSquare, it was 57 to 1, for #DalaiLama, it was 56 to 1, and hashtags about Uighers had an average ratio of 11 to 1. There was no such discrepancy when it came to #Trump or other hashtags connected to American politics. The ratio was reversed with hashtags on some topics that are aligned with China's interests, including #StandWithKashmir, which had a ratio of 661 posts on TikTok for every one on Instagram, NBC News reports. Researchers said it was hard to believe the difference could occur "organically." "We assess a strong possibility that content on TikTok is either amplified or suppressed based on its alignment with the interests of the Chinese government," the institute's report said.
US Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat, said the report shows TikTok is a "tool to brazenly spread disinformation and suppress content that undermines the Chinese government," the Times reports. TikTok pushed back against the report, accusing researchers of using "flawed methodology," though it compared hashtag volumes with Instagram in a Nov. 13 blog post addressing posts on the Israel-Hamas war. The company said hashtags are created by users, not TikTok, and many videos don't have hashtags at all. "Anyone familiar with how the platform works can see for themselves the content they refer to is widely available and claims of suppression are baseless," said company spokesman Alex Haurek. (More TikTok stories.)
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