Explosive New Study Suggests TikTok's DISTURBING Ties To CCP

The study's findings indicate "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."

TikTok, owned by the Chinese firm ByteDance, has long been suspected of maintaining a close relationship with the Chinese government.

Despite ByteDance's repeated denials of any such connection, the company has been accused of sharing data on American TikTok users, as well as other cell phone data, with the Chinese government. These allegations have prompted bipartisan concern in the United States and calls for legal restrictions on the app from governments worldwide.

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Beyond data security issues, several internet watchdog organizations have suggested that TikTok may be artificially amplifying content that aligns with the CCP's geopolitical objectives, including efforts to destabilize the United States and its Western allies. The authors of the new study believe they have uncovered compelling evidence to support these claims.

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December 23, 2023

The researchers analyzed hashtag data related to six topics known to be sensitive to the Chinese government: Uyghurs, Tiananmen Square, Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the South China Sea. They compared the visibility of content related to these hashtags on TikTok with their visibility on Instagram, which has a similarly sized user base. The researchers also examined hashtag behavior on topics not sensitive to the CCP to rule out the possibility that differences in user demographics might account for variations in hashtag reception.

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The study's authors found that "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)." After controlling for other variables, the researchers concluded that the Chinese government is actively suppressing TikTok content related to these six topics, as well as pro-Ukraine and pro-Israel content.

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The study also discovered that TikTok likely artificially boosted certain topics of interest to the Chinese government, such as content promoting Kashmiri independence. The authors noted, "The significance of the overrepresentation of #standwithkashmir specifically, with over 225 million posts, should not be understated. To contextualize the magnitude of this activity, consider that the total sum of #standwithkashmir posts outweighs the sum of all other political hashtags in our sample put together (23,176,698) by an order of magnitude."

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These findings are particularly concerning given a recent Pew study indicating that a third of U.S. adults under 30 regularly get news from TikTok. This suggests that a significant portion of the next generation's news content could be influenced by a communist dictatorship. As the study concludes, the implications of such a scenario are deeply troubling.