Forbes has reported that some TikTok employees in the United States have the ability to boost videos in order to “introduce celebrities and emerging creators to the TikTok community.” The report delved into the “Heating” button on TikTok, which can be used to put selected videos onto users’ For You pages. This will help boost views of certain creators or content by not needing to be pushed by the powerful TikTok algorithm.
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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”. Favazza also claims that this doesn’t happen often, saying that only “0.002 percent of videos in For You feeds” are heated. However, the Forbes investigation found contrary evidence, proving that heated videos reportedly make up “around 1-2 percent” of “total daily video views.”
When browsing the platform, users don’t see when a video is heated as they do when it is sponsored content or an ad. They look like any other video on the user’s For You page. Forbes notes that this isn’t much of a surprise, as there have reports for years that TikTok used promises of promoted content to convince politicians and businesses to use its platform.
While this may be a surprise for many, seeing how natural and well-matched videos on the For You page seem (again, due to the very impressive and effective algorithm it uses to serve up content), it is hardly a practice unique to TikTok. Facebook allegedly knew it was showing inflated view counts and didn’t fix it right away to help entice advertisers and media companies to its platform. It ended up paying a $40 million settlement because of this practice.
One of the major reasons for TikTok artificially boosting seemingly random videos is simple – creators could lose interest in the platform if their videos underperform compared to ones that are being boosted.
Don’t expect these kinds of practices to go away anytime soon. TikTok is starting to feel the pressure from YouTube Shorts, which has figured out how to properly monetise short form content and already has an audience of billions to take advantage of it. Its creators will also benefit from Shorts as it refines the business.
