TikTok disproportionately served anti-Democratic videos during the 2024 election

A study published in Nature found that TikTok's recommendation algorithm disproportionately exposes users to conservative and anti-Democratic political content, regardless of their initial political interests. Researchers created 323 bot accounts across different U.S. regions and tracked over 280,000 recommended videos during the 2024 election cycle, finding that Republican-trained accounts received 11.5% more aligned content while Democratic accounts faced significantly more opposing viewpoints. The findings suggest that TikTok's algorithm, rather than user self-selection, plays a significant role in shaping the political content people encounter on the platform.