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TikTok Stacking Algorithms in Chinese Government’s Favor with Pro-China Content Originating from State-Linked Entities, Study Claims

www.kqed.org TikTok Stacking Algorithms in Chinese Government’s Favor, Study Claims | KQED

The report from the Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University heightens concerns about how Beijing influences content on one of the most popular social media platforms with Americans under 30.

TikTok Stacking Algorithms in Chinese Government’s Favor, Study Claims | KQED

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/1814468

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Here is the stuy: The CCP’s Digital Charm Offensive

TikTok Stacking Algorithms in Chinese Government’s Favor, Study Claims

A study published on Thursday asserts TikTok’s algorithms promote Chinese Communist Party narratives and suppress content critical of those narratives, a claim the embattled company forcefully denied to KQED.

Titled “The CCP’s Digital Charm Offensive,” the study by the Rutgers University-based Network Contagion Research Institute argues that much of the pro-China content originates from state-linked entities. ByteDance, a Chinese technology company, owns TikTok.

Institute co-founder Joel Finkelstein wrote that includes media outlets and influencers, such as travel vloggers who post toothlessly about Chinese regions like Xinxiang, where the government has imprisoned more than 1 million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities.

This manipulation is not just about content availability; it extends to psychological manipulation, particularly affecting Gen Z users,” Finkelstein wrote.

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An NCRI analysis published in December looked at the volume of posts with certain hashtags — like “Uyghur,” “Xinjiang,” “Tibet” and “Tiananmen” — across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. That report found **anomalies in TikTok content based on its alignment with the interests of the Chinese government. **For example, researchers wrote, hashtags about Tibet, Hong Kong protests and the Uyghur population appeared to be underrepresented on TikTok compared with Instagram.

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