After a U.S.-led investor group took over the social media platform’s U.S. operations earlier this year, some users claimed political topics were quashed. New research contradicts their claims.
Riccardo Milani/AFP via Getty Images
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Riccardo Milani/AFP via Getty Images
Following a change in ownership of TikTok’s U.S. business by a consortium led by Larry Ellison from Oracle, concerns arose about content suppression on the platform. However, a recent analysis by researchers revealed that a data center outage affected all categories of posts, rather than targeting political content specifically.
The study, conducted by eight academics, focused on how videos trended during the ownership transition, analyzing viewership metrics across various topics. It was found that posts about specific political issues dropped significantly during the outage but later rebounded, indicating a technical issue rather than intentional censorship.
The researchers emphasized the need for greater transparency from TikTok in how content moderation is handled, especially regarding their recommendation algorithm. While concerns about potential changes under the new ownership remain, TikTok has stated that no alterations have been made to the algorithm since the ownership shift.
As users continue to monitor the platform for any shifts in content visibility, the debate around TikTok’s future under new ownership continues, with a focus on ensuring transparency and accountability in content management.
“Our position is that TikTok and other platforms should provide a way for third-party researchers to study their recommender systems and look for evidence of undue political influence,” the researchers wrote.
The timing of the TikTok disruption struck a nerve because many users have expressed wariness about how Ellison, a staunch ally of President Trump, could remake the app in his vision, just as the Ellison family has overhauled CBS in bid to appeal to conservatives.
In addition to Ellison’s Oracle, a cloud computing and data center giant, TikTok’s new investors include Silver Lake, a prominent private equity firm, and Emerati-based investment company MGX. ByteDance, TikTok’s corporate parent company in Beijing, will retain a minority stake of the new U.S. entity, as well as still own the powerful algorithm, which will be retrained using Americans’ data.
A TikTok spokeswoman said no changes have been made to its algorithm since the new investors took the reins of the social media company’s American business. The deal was struck to bring the app in compliance with a federal law that required TikTok distance itself from its Chinese parent company over national security concerns.
“Right now, TikTok can say just about anything related to algorithm changes and we can’t verify it,” Guinaudeau told NPR.
He added: “Now we could see massive changes like if they suddenly stopped showing all political content, which was one of the accusations we examine in the post. But until they make more extensive data available to researchers it’s nearly impossible to detect subtle changes to their ‘For You’ recommender system (‘the algorithm’).”
