A study by Institute for Network Contagion Research or NCRI in collaboration with Rutgers University suggests that ByteDanceThe algorithm of the company’s own social media platform TikTok promotes content that favors the Chinese government.

What happened: Building on the December 2023 findings, the study found “compelling and strong circumstantial evidence” that TikTok content is manipulated by the Chinese government.

However, the authors acknowledged that the results were “not definitive proof of government orchestration.”

TikTok’s algorithm was also found to promote pro-Chinese content from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and suppress videos critical of the government.

See also: Trump is shocked by the power-hungry AI and tells Elon Musk: “Requires twice as much energy as the country already produces”

According to a survey of about 1,200 Americans, frequent TikTok users are about 50% more likely to have a positive opinion of the Chinese government than non-users.

“The NCRI believes that the CCP uses algorithmic manipulation combined with large-scale information operations to influence users’ beliefs and behaviors on a large scale, and that these efforts are proving extremely successful, particularly on TikTok,” the study said.

The authors used the results to urge the federal government to regulate the social media giant more strictly.

The results of the study were first published by The Hill. In a statement to the publication, TikTok dismissed the study, calling it “fiction.”

The company spokesman said: “This unpeer-reviewed and flawed experiment was clearly designed to produce a false, predetermined result.”

TikTok did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comment.

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Why it is important: This comes amid bipartisan criticism of the social media site and a legal battle over its future after Congress passed a law requiring Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the company.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice accused TikTok of collecting data about its users’ views on sensitive issues such as gun control, abortion and religion. The department also alleged that TikTok had censored content.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also filed a lawsuit against TikTok, accusing the company of repeated violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

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Disclaimer: This content was created in part using AI tools and reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.