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I was curious what a TikTok user might see if they made a fresh account. I provided no preferred content categories, and did not interact with any video in any way except the skip them.
In my first fifteen minutes, I received:
9 manosphere “inspiration” videos
The official accounts of Tucker Carlson and Vivek
2 clips from each Fox News, and tabloids New York Post and Metro
1 “America first” rando
1 Copaganda vid of “cool” new police robots
Elon’s nazi salute without context or commentary
I also got some questionable AI slop; an edited perp walk for Luigi Mangione that presented him as especially dangerous, and one robotic voice that mused something nonsensical about the “stereotypical appearance” of Mexican people.
Did I receive any real news? Yeah, a little bit!
Exactly one clip for each of the following publications: ABC, CNBC, BBC, MSNBC, SBS, NBC, CBS, and People Magazine.
I received one interview clip with Bernie Sanders, Kendrick at the Super Bowl, and someone having their vulva tattooed. (lol)
Everything else was dance videos, pet compilations, and recipes.
I would like to repeat this experiment with a more structured methodology, instead of me just screwing around on my couch. I’m not 100% sure how to do that with any amount of scientific rigor so that’ll take some research and prep.
@Haste Would be interesting to experiment from different countries as well
@philfr agreed; on at least some items, TikTok does disclose that its recommendation is passed on location.
