The Wall Street Journal created dozens of automated accounts that watched hundreds of thousands of videos to reveal how the the TikTok algorithm knows you so well
A Wall Street Journal investigation found that TikTok only needs one important piece of information to figure out what you want: the amount of time you linger over a piece of content. Every second you hesitate or rewatch, the app is tracking you. Photo illustration: Laura Kammermann/The Wall Street Journal
Inside TikTok’s Highly Secretive Algorithm
This WSJ video investigation reveals how the video-centric social network is so good at figuring out interests you never expressly tell it.
More from the Wall Street Journal:
Visit WSJ.com:
Visit the WSJ Video Center:
On Facebook:
On Twitter:
On Snapchat:
#WSJ #TikTok #Algorithm
Link do Vídeo
beautiful algorithm, it serves you Italian food when you are at an Italian restaurant and serves you Chinese food when you are at a Chinese restaurant…
just accept that u can't control it make u itch in ur b we know that American controlled app and web stole our data without permission we know ur foreign policy destroying another country interfering with our sovereignty we love tiktok i will give it my permission gladly
I never watch the FYP.
Youtube's algorithm now knows you are interested in TikTok
We’re all slaves.
Please don't let them IPO in the United States, if we can't penetrate their market for our products then we need to ask why they can penetrate our market and IPO in here to compete with us. Like any other manager that I don't admire because they just steal your idea or copycat it without giving you the credit, so why do you admire that kinds of managers, pit you against each others, make you as the horse race to complete the tasks just because she/he can't compete with the colleagues instead of the manager who wants to create an environment that collaborate to promote healthy competition to solve challenges. Those kinds of managers used to be the conservative thinkers and no innovativeness or I call it just like the Chinese Communist Conservative Party. I don't want to be in that club that is why we love democracy and why many immigrants come to the United States, the melting pot that gives us the freedom and liberty to choose.
Hi Wall Street team, thank you for posting the video. It is scary to view that TikTok just needs to take mere seconds to recommend a user a video of their interest and 90% prove that it is effective. One thing I find interesting is that by just programming a bot TikTok can track the interest of the bot via the time spent lingering on the particular video, identifying the user and audio, and the use of hashtags in the particular video. However, based on the video I notice that the use of hashtags enables TikTok to understand their viewers better and compile videos based on the hashtags mentioned. The use of hashtags enables users to discover the content easier and allows them to participate in the conversation. In the case of TikTok, hashtags are used to gather information about the user and use the information to recommend videos that are similar to the hashtags being used. Overall, I find this video interesting about the platform analyzing their user’s behaviors and patterns to help cater to them based on their interest.
I can figure out any tiktok user. depressed whether they admit it or not, zero attention span
Every Social Media sight, including YouTube does this. The only difference is with TixTox is there is more hard points of data the algorithm can use, and its short term format also means they get that data faster.
Remember, our Brains are Plastic. The neural pathways strengthen with any form of repetition of same or similar thought processes. We are literally addicted to our moods. We all have a default mood we come to and that's because our brain has been wired for ease to get there. In the example of depress as used in this video, the more we see, the more time we spend feeling that, the easier it is for our mood to stay there. And all these Social Media sites use this brain thing to keep you in front of their paid ads. But its so much worse then that.
They can change what you see and how you think by bring up whatever Thing they want you to think and feel. Its call Propaganda. The method to change your interest has to do with Social Proof. Our brains are also hard wired to be interested and do what our Communities are doing. Its a survival instinct. We exist because we coexist within a tribe. Its literally life or death to be associated with a Tribe. So our brains follow the crowd.
So if they broadcast the same message to the crowd, and they can show this in a way that removes the doubts in your mind that this is what other people are thinking and feeling, you too will think and feel the same way. Ants might use pheromones to guide the Colony, we use Visual Communications to do the same thing. All they have to do is Show You something over and over again and you will believe it to be true. The brain does not need evidence, it just needs the sense of Popularity.
Social Media will be the most powerful tool for mind control the World has ever seen. Its effective today, and will exponentially become more effective the more data they collect from you. They have ever bit of interest to control what you see and how you feel. That is the secret to controlling you unpretentiously.
Hilarious fear mongering.
See those hash tags at the bottom of each video? There is also ML understanding what's being uploaded (sports, dance, music, etc) just like every platform would, including YouTube, Instagram, etc. It's fast in learning about your interests because the videos are friggin short. If you watch the same number of videos on YouTube you'll see the home feed to be scarily personalized as well.
this is a national security issue, and a very serious issue!
Man.. People really be obsessed with memes.
Crazy this doesn't have millions of views but the opposite WILL. SMMFH
Are you also worried that they might be pushing a
certain political stance for instance? But I mean in a manipulative way. I like these platforms but I am not sure about their transparency. Does it happen to you as well?
Humans are predictable..but they themselves thought otherwise
Evil Tik tok
Your too trendy that’s how they read your personality is completely readable by a fake thing
And then all that data is sold and you get the most personalised ads ever.
tldr….. tiktok is a CANCER
Doesn’t every social media platform give you more of the content you interact with? Whether you like/comment or not.
Major security breach
It's not only tik tok.
Is it worth to store the Engagement for each and every video? Like are the returns Higher than the cost of storing the Engagement of each user on each video? Or does it directly store all the Hashtags of the video that the person watched for longer time? It might also delete the first entered data after for example some 100 hashtags but I am intrigued, can anyone explain the data modeling of tiktok?
Lately it feels more and more like the videos and comments trigger anger. I am starting to seriously consider deleting it completely
YouTube stories works like this too
I like video for technicality but hate the righteous , alarming tone yet hypocrites' reporting of WSJ. The main stream media has been doing this all along by pushing "OMG sky is falling" narration or exaggerated baloney coz it sells. The difference is the silicone brains can do it better than the Pulitzer Prize chasing, self righteous, so called, journalist.
so its pretty much google and youtube and instagram. THERES NO DIFFERENCE IN THE ALGO
How is the bot knows what sadness and depression content is???
Lol people be like ‘Tik Tok is secretly…’ nope my friends. It’s not secretly.
The tik tok algorithm never seemed to figure out what I like… even after weeks. It would show me some basic things like "foraging videos" which are kind of interesting to me, but nothing that really hit me and made me feel "at home" which I wager is what it's trying to do. At some point it started showing me animals getting abused??? Which is what made me delete it and not want to go back.
They definitely listen to us
Jenny C was targeted! Now she's DEAD!
Never have tiktok, never will, so it cannot influence me.
I will allow BBC animals topics , TRACKS, DW to predict what I will watch, at let I learn something new
Bezos money in wsj -> Chinese ali baba as only competitor -> video about tiktok -> anti Chinese sentiment -> eliminate competition. Nevermind that instagram uses the exact same methods described in this video to flood your feed with ads. But they're the good guys here.
tiktok doesn’t know squat about me. ✌️
I make a funky video with funny intentions and they attack, BUT WHEN I DO A REPORT ON A RACIST VIDEO, THEY DON’T SEE A VIOLATION!
"Is TikTok destroying civilization?" Elon Musk posted on Twitter on June 17. The Chinese ByteDance is the only one to challenge the American hegemony.
YouTube need to do this💯
But even then you grow pretty easy
This is how China is spying on us
Very well done!
.
I personally feel that these algorithms should be designed to challenge the views and opinions of people, not further confirm their biases.