For years, TikTok has claimed that the For You page is personalized for each user, with video recommendations created using an algorithm that “predicts interests” based on their overall activity on the app.

But that’s not the whole truth, according to six current and former employees of TikTok and its parent company ByteDance, quoted by Forbes, who also examined internal documents and reports. These sources show that in addition to the algorithm that determines which videos are shown in the personalized recommendation feed and often go viral, TikTok and ByteDance employees also secretly select certain videos and manually increase their reach.using a practice known internally as “heating“.

In TikTok’s internal document, heat refers to the point of intervention and promotion of a video on the “For You” page to reach a certain number of views. The total number of views of videos promoted by people, “accounts for the majority of daily video views, about 1-2%which could have a significant impact on the overall baseline.”

To date, TikTok has not admitted to this practice.

As Forbes points out, when the tech giants promote certain posts, they usually label them clearly. Google, Meta, and even TikTok itself, for example, have partnered with public health agencies in the past to spread accurate information about COVID-19, revealing why and how they choose to promote certain content.

“Services” to Companies and Influencers

However, sources told Forbes that TikTok used heat in the cryptocurrency. a dramatic increase in the number of views of videos hosted by companies and influencers.to encourage them to cooperate in the future.

This suggests that the heat may have benefited the brands and influencers that TikTok was keen to do business with, at the expense of others that the platform was uninterested in.

We believe that social media is “very democratic” and gives everyone the same opportunity to reach an audience, says Evelyn Dweck, professor at Stanford Law School and senior fellow at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. “But this is not always the case,” he warns. “To some extent, the same old power structures are replicated in social media, where each platform can decide to some extent who will be the winner and who will be the loser, and commercial and other partnerships have an advantage.”

Heating means that sometimes videos appear on the For You page, not because TikTok thinks they are of interest to users, but because TikTok wants to get more views for a particular creator or company.

And without tags like those used in ads and sponsored content, it’s almost impossible for users to distinguish these messages from the rest of the material.

Employees promoted their accounts

According to Forbes, TikTok employees abused the hidden heating feature. Three sources told Forbes that they are aware of cases where employees used this practice inappropriately. One source even said that it is known that employees promote their own accounts or those of their spousesin violation of company rules.

Documents reviewed by Forbes show that employees did indeed promote their own accounts, as well as the accounts of people with whom they have a personal relationship. According to one document, one such incident resulted in one account reaching over three million views.