TikTok Allegedly Has A Feature Where Staff Can Pick What Videos Go Viral

Say it ain't so! Allegedly TikTok has a "heating feature" where staff is able to pick what videos go viral on the platform.

So those videos on your 'For You Page' might not be there just because of the algorithm. According to a Forbes report, staff from TikTok along with ByteDance can boost certain videos to get them to peoples feeds. Former and current employees told Forbes that the "heating" feature lets them choose which video goes viral. That's crazy and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

"The heating feature refers to boosting videos into the For You feed through operation intervention to achieve a certain number of video views. The total video views of heated videos accounts for a large portion of the daily total video views, around 1-2%, which can have a significant impact on overall core metrics," says the MINT Heating Playbook, an internal TikTok document reviewed by Forbes.
"We promote some videos to help diversify the content experience and introduce celebrities and emerging creators to the TikTok community," a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement to Insider. "Only a few people, based in the US, have the ability to approve content for promotion in the US, and that content makes up approximately .002% of videos in For You feeds." 

Those employees said that this is used to help attract influencers and brands. Supposedly the "heating" feature can be used to "attract influencers, promote diverse content, push important information, and promote relevant videos that were missed by the recommendations algorithms." What do you think of this feature for the employees? For more information, click here.


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