TikTok and Race
TikTok is one of the fastest growing social media apps in which users can share, like, repost, comment on, or create short videos. [1] TikTok’s algorithm is known for how fast it can identify a user's interests to reproduce similar content on a users' For You Page - a constant stream of customized content that works to capture the user's attention. [2] TikTok's search page, on the other hand, is organized by popularity. [3] With about 1 billion active users, TikTok has the incredible ability to both impact and be impacted by culture.[4] While TikTok's algorithm is used to keep users' attention, the algorithm also echoes and encourages racial power dynamics in the US. [3] The TikTok algorithm identifies users interests to capitalize on attention. In doing so, it pushes popular videos (often made by White creators) and allows for the fast spread and mass manipulation of trends/dances often made by Black Creators. Interaction with content tells the algorithm to promote similar content, making TikTok a White dominated space and a space that can reinforce preexisting biases. [3] [5]
Contents
History of TikTok
The TikTok app is a social media platform in which small video clips are presented to the user in a constant stream of entertainment. The app has three main pages - the For You page, the Following page, and the Search page. The Following page is a continuous stream of video content from the creators that the user follows. The For You Page is an endless page of these videos specifically tailored to the interest of the user - how this is done is not exactly known.[6] The Search page allows users to search creators, hashtags, audio etc. While not gaining its popularity until COVID-19, the TikTok app started as an amalgamation of three different apps previously launched, one of which was Musical.ly created in 2014. [1] Chinese tech giant ByteDance also launched a similar platform called Douyin. [1] In 2018, ByteDance bought Musica.ly and wanted to expand and rebrand itself under the name TikTok.[1] The TikTok application is known for its powerful algorithm that seems to learn user's preferences faster than other social media platforms before. [1]
TikTok's Recommendation Algorithm
TikTok’s algorithm is known for its ability to understand a users’ interest fast and continually suggest new content based on those interests. While TikTok has never completely shared their algorithm to the public, they have shared some information. Meanwhile many algorithm professionals and users alike have created their own theories and studies about how the TikTok algorithm promotes content.
TikTok's Algorithm
TikTok’s algorithm thrives off of the recommendation For You Page in order to personalize each user's content.[6] The algorithm uses TikTok's features such as likes and comments to analyze a TikTok video based on features of a video like video title, audio, and hashtags in order to pinpoint a user's interests. [7] According to a study conducted by the Wall Street Journal, a TikTok representative has confirmed that shares, likes, and follows influence how TikTok learns about you, not by listening through your device. [8] While this may be true, based on this Wall Street Journal study, how long a user engages with a video or if the user pauses on a video gives TikTok the indication to use elements like hashtags, video titles, or audios to understand a user's interests and promote similar content. [8] A new user's For You Page starts as a stream of a wide variety of popular videos. Based on the interaction and engagement with the videos, the TikTok algorithm starts to understand the user’s preferences, and starts to suggest more content that aligns with those preferences. [8] From here, the algorithm will push the user into more and more specific, and less vetted, video content based on their interests in attempts to capture attention. [8] Using IP addresses, TikTok also takes into account your location to suggest videos; however, the user's engagement with those videos determines how much more of that content they will see.[8]
For You Page
TikTok’s For You Page is a recommendation page that feeds the user endless content of both celebrities and “normal” content creators based on popularity at first, and eventually also based on your interests assumed and collected by the algorithm. The data collected from engaging with any video is used by the algorithm to isolate interests and show users content that they are likely to enjoy. [2] Multiple factors are used for the algorithm to determine the content on a users’ For You Page. These factors include interactions with videos (liking/sharing/commenting), following new accounts, video information (hashtags, sounds, and captions), and device settings (language, location). [6] An overwhelming majority of content (90-95%) consumed on TikTok comes from the apps recommendation For You Page. [8]
TikTok's Search Page
On TikTok’s search page users can search for anything and find results based on hashtags, captions, audios, users etc. The search page is not ordered chronologically, but rather by popularity. [3] TikTok has acknowledged that interactions with videos on the search page will be used in the algorithm to expand the videos shown on a user's For You Page [6].
Ethical Concerns of TikTok Reinforcing and Encouraging Racial Power Dynamics
"The D'Amelio Effect" [3] and "Algorithmic Privilege" [9]
With about 1 billion active users, TikTok has the incredible ability to impact US culture. [4] And Charli D’Amelio, with her 149.6 million followers has the incredible ability to impact TikTok.[10] Along with Charli TikTok stars like Addison Rae, Loren Gray, Dixie D’Amelio, Lil Huddy, Noah Beck, and Bryce Hall set the culture on TikTok with their millions of followers. Some scholars have noted that many the popular TikTok stars have one thing in common - they are White or "White presenting". [3] Academics believe that these stars were able to gain such popularity from fitting "typical beauty standards", White beauty standards, and appealing to the majority population, the White population. [3] TikTok stars that embody White beauty standards work to influence others, and thus unconsciously or consciously reinforce the value of White beauty standards. [11] This concerns many, as it echoes pre-existing racial hierarchies that affords White creators privilege. [3]. “Algorithmic privilege” refers to the privilege people have when their identity allows them to reap the benefits of the algorithm [9]. In the search feature of the app, TikToks do not show up chronologically, but rather by popularity. [3] Thus, the algorithm encourages users in search of a new dance to learn it from an already popular creator such as Charli D’Amelio. One Black teacher recalled a time when her Black students wanted to teach her a dance from TikTok. She reported that the only videos to teach her the dance from the search page was from creators who look like Charli D'Amelio - White, female presenting, and skinny. [3] By promoting already popular creators, TikTok encourages that user to engage with such content, indicating to the algorithm that the user will want more similar content. Therefore, by learning a dance from Charli D'Amelio, the algorithm will continue to promote similar content in attempts to capitalize on a users’ interests. This creates a cycle of popular White-created content and makes TikTok a White dominated space. [3] Many of the dances Charli and similar White creators perform are created by a Black creator such as the #SavageChallenge. [11] With the algorithm pushing popular videos and recording users' interests, creators like Charli often receive drastically more attention from trends than the Black creator herself. [3] The algorithm allows for White creators to maintain popularity while making it harder for Black creators to rise to the top - giving many White creators “algorithmic privilege”. [3] [9] The algorithm encourages users to engage with popular videos and creators (many who happen to be White) from the start, giving many White creators "algorithmic privilege" and more visibility on TikTok. In this way, TikTok mirrors harmful racial hierarchies. [3]
Digital Appropriation
Keara Wilson is a young Black creator on TikTok, who invented the viral dance to the song “Savage” by Megan Thee Stallion. [11] Although not previously famous, Wilson performed her dance only five times on TikTok until Charli D’Amelio recreated it on her own account - making the dance viral. [11] The #SavageChallenge blew up from Charli D’Amelio, resulting in more fame for both D’Amelio and Megan Thee Stallion, translating into more profit for both celebrities. [11] While Wilson enjoyed her time briefly in the spotlight, she did not reap many benefits from creating the viral challenge.[11] The algorithm naturally pushed popular videos and creators (especially on the search page) allowing Charli's likes and views to skyrocket while Wilson received substantially less attention. [3] Scholars have suggested that this has an effect in which a viewer is likely to assume that a popular TikTok dance was created by the popular TikTok star they see performing it, not its actual creator. [11] Like Wilson’s #Savage Challenge, many of the biggest dance trends have been started by Black creators; however, they did not receive nearly the amount of success as their White imitators.[11] In 2021, this drove some Black content creators to go on a content strike. [12] Historically, dances created by Black especially female creators are often a form of self expression - of race, gender, sexuality etc. [11] The identity of the creator is co-opted when a White creator performs an expression of identity that is not her own. Yet, the algorithm does not take into account culture and will continue to elevate these videos based on success and following. [3] Not only does this create a lack of representation on people’s For You Pages, but this also has real economic consequences. [3] When creators like Charli perform a dance made by a Black creator, it contributes to her engagement rate and fandom. This engagement and massive amounts of followers gives Charli and other TikTok stars extreme economic value. According to Forbes, TikTok influencers have charged up to $500,000 per post, with the average ranging from $100,000 - $250,000 per post. [13] Additionally, by recreating dances made by Black creators, White creators are using “Black femme” rhythms, movements, and gestures to increase their fame, thus increasing their economic value while Black creators simply get “dc” (dance credits) or no credit at all. [11] As suggested by scholars, many of these viral TikTok dances made by Black creators are tied to the stereotypical hyper-sexualization of Black females and are ways for them to reclaim their sexuality. [11] TikTok allows for the rapid spread of videos, and thus rapid manipulation, recreation, and edits of those videos, making it easy for the original creators to get lost in the trail of virality. [11] When dances tied to one’s culture and identity become trends, they are often “digitally appropriated” or recreated digitally without context or cultural significance on their way to being viral. [11] The fame of White creators like Charli D'Amelio and the way in which TikTok allows users to share or recreate trends encourages a dance like the #SavageChallenge to be digitally appropriated by other White creators, making it a trend. While Black creators often make viral trends, White creators often reap the benefits of its virality. [9]
TikTok as an Echo Chamber
The TikTok algorithm uses data such as engagement with videos, followers, likes, hashtags etc. to quickly identify a user’s interest to target both regular content and advertisements alike. This creates a type of rabbit hole effect, as TikTok shows you content you are highly likely to want to engage with based on past activity. [8] As TikTok learns more about your interests, it pushes the user into deeper and more extreme versions of content that are less moderated than some of the mainstream popular videos. [8] The TikTok's algorithm thus allows people to get caught in an echo chamber of their own interests and ideas, with a somewhat limited diversity of content. Forbes reported that when a user followed a White woman with blond hair, he started to see many more White women with blond hair on his For You Page.[5] While duplicating the appearance of liked creators is not a bias, this does reduce the diversity of people and ideas that that user is exposed to. As the algorithm uses people’s interests, this can push content that confirms or reproduces people’s pre-existing biases. [5] In an academic study on hate speech and extremist views, it was found in a sample of 1,030 videos posted on TikTok (about 8 hours of content) that 30% of those videos promoted white supremacy (about 2.5 hours on content). [14] People who engage with these videos most likely align themselves with similar values. [5] This tells their algorithm to further promote this type of content that encourages biases and values of white supremacy. The most viewed video in this study reached 2 million views and was about anti-Asian hatred in response to COVID-19. [14] One of the top ten most-viewed videos in the sample was a video of a White supremacist who is currently in jail. [14] Although TikTok removes hateful content, it happens very inconsistently. [14] These videos spreading harmful racist ideas are being fed by the algorithm to users who most likely already believe in those values, reinforcing bias. The algorithm lends itself to pinpointing people's interests to increase engagement; however, by blindly encouraging content based on data, TikTok can encourage and reinforce people's racist beliefs. [5] This type of content is getting serious attention from a lot of TikTok users - pushing those users with harmful views further into an echo chamber of their own ideas, which can have extreme consequences in the real world. [5]
TikTok's Response
In the wake of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter Movement, many Black TikTok creators complained of their content being suppressed as many videos with #GeorgeFloyd or #BlackLivesMatter received zero views. [15] In June 2020, TikTok issued a statement addressing these concerns about race on TikTok. While they did take some responsibility, TikTok also pointed to the fact that many "powerful videos" with the #BlackLivesMatter still received large amounts of attention. [15] In their response, TikTok reported that they created a plan of action to improve how the application approaches race. That plan included investing in technology and moderation strategies to improve the regulation of content, creating a "creator diversity council and impact-driven programs", improving internal diversity, and developing a "creator portal" in efforts to create more opportunities for creators. [15] It is not know whether these efforts improved the TikTok platform; however, a year later Black TikTok creators went on a content strike in response to inequality on TikTok. [12]
References
{{{{{1}}}{{{2}}}|Pdf|Doc}}- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Tidy , J., & Galer, S. S. (2020, August 5). Tiktok: The story of a social media giant. BBC News. Retrieved January 23, 2023, from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53640724
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Zhang, M., & Liu, Y. (2021). A commentary of TikTok recommendation algorithms. Science Direct. Retrieved January 23, 2023, from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fmre.2021.11.015.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 Boffone, T. (2022, April 3). The d'amelio effect: 3 : Tiktok, Charli D'Amelio, and the Constructio. Taylor & Francis. Retrieved January 24, 2023, from https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003280705-3/amelio-effect-trevor-boffone
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Omnicore Agency. (2023, January 7). Tiktok by the numbers (2023): Stats, Demographics & Fun Facts. Omnicore Agency. Retrieved January 24, 2023, from https://www.omnicoreagency.com/tiktok-statistics/
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Asare, J. G. (2021, December 10) Does Tiktok have a race problem? Forbes. Retrieved January 25, 2023, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/janicegassam/2020/04/14/does-tiktok-have-a-race-problem/?sh=76b22d2e3260
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Jarboe, G. (2022, July 4). How TikTok's Search Algorithms Power Content Discovery. Search Engine Journal. Retrieved January 23, 2023, from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/tiktok-search-algorithms/452998/#close
- ↑ Smith, B. (2021, December 6). How tiktok reads your mind. The New York Times. Retrieved January 23, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/05/business/media/tiktok-algorithm.html
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 Dow Jones & Company. (n.d.). Inside TikTok's Highly Secretive Algorithm . The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 23, 2023, from https://www.wsj.com/video/series/inside-tiktoks-highly-secretive-algorithm/investigation-how-tiktok-algorithm-figures-out-your-deepest-desires/6C0C2040-FF25-4827-8528-2BD6612E3796.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Karizat, N., Delmonaco, D., Eslami, M., & Andalibi, N. (2021, October 1). Algorithmic folk theories and identity: How tiktok users co-produce knowledge of identity and engage in algorithmic resistance. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. Retrieved January 24, 2023, from https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3476046?casa_token=1Ybbxc2y5F0AAAAA%3ATN8dzsdhxx2wI17ARTdVKKDMkg4hKIASaz6V3EMtFVUwME4WHL6j0WXUVW9shTTOpngknXk8sktfCg
- ↑ Charli D'Amelio's TikTok. TikTok. (n.d.). Retrieved January 25, 2023, from https://www.tiktok.com/@charlidamelio?lang=en
- ↑ 11.00 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10 11.11 11.12 Davis, C. (2022, April 3). Digital Blackface and the troubling intimacies of Tiktok Dance Challenge. Taylor & Francis. Retrieved January 25, 2023, from https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003280705-4/digital-blackface-troubling-intimacies-tiktok-dance-challenges-cienna-davis?context=ubx
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Kung, J. (2022, February 14). What internet outrage reveals about race and TikTok's algorithm. NPR. Retrieved February 6, 2023, from https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2022/02/14/1080577195/tiktok-algorithm
- ↑ Brown, A. (2023, January 12). Top-earning Tiktok-ERS 2022: Charli and Dixie D'Amelio and Addison Rae expand fame-and paydays. Forbes. Retrieved February 8, 2023, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2022/01/07/top-earning-tiktokers-charli-dixie-damelio-addison-rae-bella-poarch-josh-richards/?sh=38bcfc03afa4
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 O'Conner, C. (n.d.). Hatescape: An In-Depth Analysis of Extremism and Hate on TikTok. Retrieved January 25, 2023, from https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/24/ISD-TikTok-Hatescape-Report-August-2021.pdf
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Pappas, V. (2020, June 16). A message to our black community. Newsroom. Retrieved February 7, 2023, from https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/a-message-to-our-black-community
