Tiktok Has Confirmed That Employees Can Decide What Videos To Make Viral And I'm Wondering Who I Need To Start Buttering Up
TikTok has confirmed to Forbes that some of its US employees have the ability to boost videos in order to “introduce celebrities and emerging creators to the TikTok community.” The statement comes as part of a report about TikTok’s “Heating” button, which Forbes says can be used to put selected videos onto users’ For You pages, helping boost views by sidestepping the algorithm that supposedly drives the TikTok experience.
Jamie Favazza, a spokesperson for TikTok, told Forbes that increasing views to particular videos isn’t the only reason for heating. TikTok will also “promote some videos to help diversify the content experience” (read: make sure your feed isn’t entirely made up of one or two trends), he said. Favazza also suggests TikTok doesn’t do it that often, claiming only “.002% of videos in For You feeds” are heated. According to an internal document obtained by Forbes, however, heated videos reportedly make up “around 1-2 percent” of “total daily video views.”
Heated videos don’t come with a label to show that they’ve been boosted by TikTok like ads or sponsored posts do, according to the report. Instead, they appear like any other videos that the algorithm would’ve selected for you.
The news isn’t necessarily a surprise. There have been reports for years that TikTok used promises of promoted content to convince politicians and businesses to use its platform, and companies, especially in the music industry, have made no secret of using the platform to promote their brands.
Great. So not only do I have to flirt with Elon Musk to stay relevant on Twitter, or bend to Zuckerberg's dumb fucking rules on IG about "not bullying people," I'm going to have to start buttering up someone at Tiktok to get my stupid little videos "boosted?" Fantastic. It's not like we already have to fight tooth and nail over here at Barstool, where we have Glenny Balls making out with Drew Barrymore and the Mean Girls checking their brains at the door for controversial clips. My Harry Potter trivia and gothic wedding outfits are BARELY scraping by. I called Josh Richards a certified hottie last week and it barely moved the needle! JOSH RICHARDS! Tiktok's darling! How am I supposed to make it in this dog eat dog world on the internet?
