TikTok is still under fire from critics. All Europe AND In the U.Sthe social network is in the sights of the authoritiesthat multiply the criticism against them and sometimes agitate the threat of a total ban.
Most of the criticism leveled at the app is directed at one of its gears in particular. And not just any: the reactor core, its secret recipe, its algorithm. The program that helps understand user preferences and choose which videos to recommend to them. And the criticisms that are made of this algorithm go far beyond simple recommendations.
Focuses on your preferences like no other
“A series of criticisms that we make of TikTok, we make of most social networks”, tempers the entry for Tech&Co Marc Faddoul, co-director of the NGO AI Forensics, which studies the operation of recommendation algorithms. But the TikTok algorithm and the particular design of the social network bring these criticisms to their climax.
TikTok, for example, is accused of being very addictive, especially for the youngest, who can spend several hours a day there. “It’s the game that all platforms play: keep the user engaged and keep them on the platform for as long as possible,” Marc Faddoul reminds Tech&Co. And to win in this battle for attention, you need to offer them content that engages them, hence the importance of a high-performing recommendation algorithm.
In this game, TikTok is far ahead: its algorithm manages to identify the preferences of its users like no network before and can therefore hold you back for hours. It’s so powerful because it accumulates an astronomical amount of data about your preferences.
However, each video that passes through the vertical thread represents a mine of information: you saw it, like it, share it, ignore it… Enough to accumulate a mountain of information and thus adapt the videos that are offered to the user in a jiffy.
Because it constantly provides users with content that interests them, TikTok’s algorithm is regularly accused of promoting addictive behaviors or vicious cycles of negative content that may have been implicated in cases of depression or suicide. “The algorithm also particularly favors polarized or controversial content, because it is the most attractive,” adds Marc Faddoul.
On Chinese origins
If the TikTok algorithm is criticized so much, it is also due to its lack of transparency. Like most of the algorithms of the large platforms, “its operation is very opaque”, recalls Marc Faddoul: its code is not available, we do not know precisely what data is collected, nor its respective weight when determining preferences… But here too, TikTok is a special case. In particular because of its origins: the parent company of the social network, ByteDance, is Chinese.
With such influence, could the Chinese government use TikTok’s algorithm to push content favorable to its policies? To be convinced, just take a look at the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, very different from that available in the rest of the world. The critical content for the government is there restricted by the algorithm, even censored, as well as videos that show LGBT people or that question cultural traditions. Is this censorship done at the request of the government or at the initiative of ByteDance itself? Nobody really knows.
A risk that has led several countries to consider banning the application, including the United States. It is to avoid such an outcome that the social network would consider separate from its Chinese parent company. But if the concerns related to TikTok’s origin could be resolved, the other questions related to its algorithm are likely to be around for a long time to come.
Source: BFM TV
