TikTok algorithm prioritizes pro-Republican content before 2024 US election, study finds
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · May 6
TikTok algorithm prioritizes pro-Republican content before 2024 US election, study finds
4 articles · Updated · The Guardian · May 6
Nature researchers using 323 dummy accounts in New York, Texas and Georgia tracked 280,000 videos over 27 weeks and found Republican-trained bots got 11.5% more aligned content.
Democratic-trained bots were also 7.5% more likely to be shown pro-Republican videos, with cross-partisan attacks centring on immigration, crime and abortion, the NYU Abu Dhabi team said.
TikTok disputed the fake-account experiment as unrepresentative, while the authors said the findings matter for transparency and electoral-risk debates, especially among younger voters who increasingly use the platform for political information.
After its 2026 overhaul, can TikTok’s new US-only algorithm still create the political echo chambers found in the 2024 study?
With new AI laws emerging, will users ever gain true control over the content algorithms that shape their online experience?
Are all engagement-based social media algorithms inherently biased, regardless of who owns them or where the data is stored?