Leaked Documents Reveal The Dark Secrets Behind The TikTok Algorithm

1. How The TikTok Algorithm Works Is Their Darkest Secret

image source: reddit.com

How TikTok tracks your every move and brings you the videos it thinks you want to see has long been one of its closely guarded secrets! There have been some problematic issues about the content it decides to show, and leaked information reveals the truth about how it works..

2. There Have Been Concerns About 'Harmful' Recommendations

image source: reddit.com

The way the TikTok algorithm works is very much based on what you spend the longest watching - and it's then likely to want to show you more of the same videos. This means if you happen to stumble across something more disturbing or gross and you can't force yourself to look away, TikTok might then think that's the kind of stuff you want to see - even when you don't.

3. The Algorithm Is Similar To YouTube's

image source: reddit.com

We all know what it's like when you go down a YouTube rabbit hole after watching one random video and then having 50 similar ones suggested to you down the side! TikTok works in a very similar way, but it tends to 'remember' better than YouTube and be more forceful with what it shows through autoplay.

4. It Focuses On Four Key 'Signals'

image source: reddit.com

To understand what you want to watch and to learn more about you, TikTok focuses on four main signals of behavior. These are: what you watch, what you share, what you choose to like and the content creators you choose to follow after seeing a particular video.

5. TikTok Only Needs To Know How Long You Spend On A Video

image source: reddit.com

While all of these four signals are important in understanding you as a person, there's one in particular that tells them pretty much all they need to know about who you are: and that's how long you spend watching a video. The longer you linger, the more they're getting to know you..

6. It's Tracking Every Second You Spend On A Vid...

image source: reddit.com

Every second really does count when it comes to the videos you're watching on TikTok, and how the algorithm is working to understand you. Every single second of every single vid, whether it's an instant scroll through or moment's hesitation, is tracked to understand you.

7. And It Knows When You Hesitate, Watch Or Rewatch

image source: reddit.com

And the algorithm knows every action you take with a video. If you're a serial scroller and then you hesitate for a fraction of a second on a certain video before continuing to scroll, it knows. If you watch half a video, it knows. If you watch the full video, or come back for a re-watch, it tracks that, too.

8. It Can Figure Out Your Hidden Interests Easily

image source: reddit.com

Sure, there are many things you might openly engage with and follow on TikTok, like the best dance creators and cat videos. But TikTok isn't just tracking that. We all have those guilty pleasures or secret interests we might not admit we have, and that's when we hesitate on certain videos - and that's how TikTok learns your hidden interests easily..

9. It's Then Designed To Spam You With That Kind Of Content

image source: reddit.com

And, of course, once it's worked out what you're interested in - whether it's something you openly love, were just curious about, or even morbid curiosity - it's then going to spam you with more videos like that, because it thinks that's the type of video that will keep you engaged.

10. And It Wants To Make It Hard For You To Escape

image source: reddit.com

Just like those YouTube rabbit holes we spoke about, TikTok can do the same thing, but on a more extreme level because it's so quick and instant-scroll. You're then bombarded with all these videos that you're more and more interested in, and it wants you to find it difficult to stop watching.

11. Everyone's Experience Is The Same When They First Open The App

image source: reddit.com

When you first open the app and see those first string of videos in for 'For You' page, this experience is usually the same for most people, and with the same or similar videos. These are sort of the test markers for what to show everyone next, so videos can diverge from person to person and be more tailored.

12. It Will Then Use Those Videos To Gauge Your Reactions

image source: reddit.com

The algorithm wants to know what you think about this first initial 'test' videos on your For You page. These videos will be the most popular videos on TikTok that have already been vetted by the moderators of the app. It's going to be checking if you watch them fully, hit the like button, or scroll away.

13. The More You Watch, The More Tailored The Videos Would Become

image source: reddit.com

The more you watch on your For You page, the more the app is tracking your interests, and you'll slowly start to see more and more videos similar to the ones you've been watching for the longest. This can also reveal your vulnerabilities and things you may not want

to watch, but can't help it if its forced in front of you.

14. The Algorithm Might Only Take 40 Minutes To Figure Out Who You Are

image source: reddit.com

It might only take under an hour for the algorithm to fully understand who you are, and what you want to see. In a lot of cases, it can take as little as 40 minutes. Now think about those times you scroll for hours on end! It's completely understood your interests and what to show you from here.

15. But This Is Bad News For People Going Through Tough Times

image source: reddit.com

More and more people these days are suffering from depression and anxiety. This might be make you linger on a sad video on TikTok or someone talking about depression. Unfortunately for TikTok, it can also understand emotions like this as 'interests' and related videos to this.

16. You Then Might Only Ever See Sad Videos

image source: businessinsider.com

Sure, you may have stopped on one video about depression because you were feeling low and wanted to see that someone else was going through the same thing. It doesn't mean that you want your For You page to then be filled with back-to-back depression posts. Unfortunately, that's what the algorithm will make happen.

17. This Is A Huge Concern, Especially For Young People

image source: reddit.com

As you can imagine, this is a cause for concern no matter what age you are - but especially for the young and impressionable people both using TikTok, and suffering with mental health issues or sadness. It's concerning to think people would then be faced with a heavy load of upsetting videos.

18. It Could Mean Conspiracy Theorists Become More Convinced

image source: audible.com

Now, TikTok doesn't only have videos on depression of course. Or dances, musicals and animals being cute for that matter. It's also rife with conspiracy theories and subjects like aliens, ghosts and jumping on the true crime genre that most of us binge on Netflix these days. This means, worryingly, that the algorithm showing a conspiracy theorists more of the same videos might make them thing this is all 'popular' content and that everyone else believes the same way they do.

19. And People With Extreme Views Become Even More Extreme

image source: thedailybeast.com

There are also people in the world with very extreme views, and those people may either lurk on social media, or create their own content to plug these extreme views. If these people are then having tailored content made for them with extreme videos, it may make their views even worse.

20. The Algorithm Thinks Engagement Is More Important Than Mental Health

image source: reddit.com

With all of this in mind, it's clear that the TikTok algorithm cares more about you engaging with videos as much as possible, rather than what it's actually showing you. It doesn't care if it shows you 20 depression videos in a row, if that's what you've engaged with before.

21. Videos Move Up Tiers Based On Popularity

image source: reddit.com

So how does the algorithm push videos to the top? Well a video always goes through a series of stages up to number 4, during which it'll be tested for popularity. Whenever a video is uploaded, 'tier 1' is when the video will be tested with a small group of people. If the engagement is positive, it'll move up.

22. The Top Tier - Tier 4 - Is When A Video Goes 'Viral'

image source: insider.com

Once the video has moved from the first tier, it'll go to the next and be tested to a wider market audience. If there is still popularity there with a high engagement, it'll eventually move up to tier 4 - which is where it'll be placed when a video goes 'viral', as many TikTok vids often do.

23. And It's Not Based On Follower Count

image source: reddit.com

The funny thing about this is that it's not based on follower count. You may think that there's no way a video would ever go viral if you don't have any followers compared to a video from a person who has millions of followers, but it's not the case. The algorithm treats all videos on an equal level, and gives any the chance to go viral - regardless of follower count.

24. TikTok Is Designed To Show More Of What You Love - But That Can Backfire

image source: socialmediaexaminer.com

Based completely on your engagement of videos, TikTok is designed to show you 'more of what you love', which in theory is a great practice. But if the algorithm is presuming that 'what you love' is just what you're spending more time on, it can be risky. You may have watched a video against your better judgement, watched a shocking video because it's in the news or had morbid curiosity about something. TikTok then thinks that's 'what you love'.

25. TikTok Likes To Create Labels

image source: reddit.com

For content creators, TikTok puts a lot of focus on labelling you, and the content you're creating. It always wants to give a label to any video. This could be 'cooking video', 'cat video' or any other relevant category. This then affects your overall account, such as user being associated with 'cat video production'.

26. The First Five Videos Make All The Difference

image source: reddit.com

But there are some things you can do to try and make sure that TikTok is labelling your videos and account in the right way - and apparently this all depends on your first five videos. If you posted five videos of your pet as your first five just to get something cute on there, then moved on to fashion or something else, TikTok is going to think you're a cat expert regardless. So make sure the first five uploads are the content label you want.

27. Never Delete Old, Failed Videos

image source: reddit.com

We know how it goes on social media - the pain of making an awesome video and then seeing that nobody has interacted with it and it's pretty much flopped. You then go to delete it in a sulk. But don't! The TikTok algorithm actually gives old videos a second chance.

28. You Need To Watch A Video To The Very End

image source: reddit.com

One of the best ways to make a TikTok video viral is to have it completely watched, from start to finish, in full. In the days of distracting social media, this can be difficult - especially if the video is long. But making sure people are watching all of your videos is one of the best ways to make it go viral.

29. TikTok Likes It When You Get Weird

image source: popbuzz.com

You might want to produce a really high-quality, fancy video - because you feel like production value is more likely to make your video high-quality and viral. But that's not the case. TikTok likes weird - it likes crazy trends, and it likes stupid videos. These are the ones more likely to go viral.

30. But The Algorithm Can Change

image source: hootsuiteblog.com

This is how the algorithm stands at the moment - but, as always with tech and social media, this algorithm might soon change. It's already working to be more 'transparent' with the more 'disturbing' content it's showing so you can understand why it's showing you certain things - and work to make sure you don't again!