A Tik-Tok-ing Timebomb: How TikTok’s Global Platform Anomalies Align with the Chinese Communist Party’s Geostrategic Objectives

The Network Contagion Research Institute analyzed hashtag ratios between Instagram and TikTok across topics sensitive to the Chinese Government. While ratios for non-sensitive topics (e.g., general political and pop-culture) generally followed user ratios (~2:1), ratios for topics sensitive to the Chinese Government were much higher (>10:1). We found these anomalies consistently between hashtag ratios on China sensitive topics for both national/regional and international issues. Though more research is needed, NCRI assesses, given this data, a strong possibility that TikTok systematically promotes or demotes content on the basis of whether it is aligned with or opposed to the interests of the Chinese Government.