Read the report here.

Our latest research investigates TikTok's "Others Searched For" feature to understand its influence on political discourse, especially in the context of the 2024 elections. Conducted in collaboration with AI Forensics and interface's TikTok Audit Team, this study aims to determine if TikTok's algorithm promotes misleading or sensational content. This feature suggests search terms to users, which could potentially lead them to questionable information or politically biased content, posing significant risks to public discourse.

Key Findings

• A survey we conducted in December 2023 with 1,643 young adults (18-24 years old, of which 59% use TikTok) in Germany showed that 67% of young TikTok users regularly use the search function, frequently encountering the search suggestions that TikTok lists on the search page and as part of the search results.
• Search suggestions are often phrased as clickbait, seemingly selected for engagement rather than content relevance.

Over four weeks leading up to the election and two times/day, we collected and analyzed 20 most common suggestions for 9 parties and manually coded a total of 254 search suggestions that were shown on average 22 times across our 60 points of data collection.

• Redirection to Competing Parties: 25% of suggestions redirect to other parties, with AfD being the most frequently referenced. For example, searching for “Die Grünen” (the greens) will lead to “alice weidel rede aktuell” (”current speech of alice weidel” - the AfDs chairwomen).
• AfD’s Dominance: Within the set of “redirecting” search suggestions the AfD is the clear winner. In search suggestions of all but Die Linke and FDP you will find at least one reference to the AFD. And also a clear loser: the FDP is mentioned by no other parties search suggestions.
• Dog Whistles: 8% of the suggestions contain dog whistles that might be read as referring to right wing narratives from “califat in Germany”, “putin warns turkish people in Germany” to “habeck breaks down and cries”

The study highlights that TikTok's "Others Searched For" feature can distort reality for young users, especially during critical electoral periods. This distortion can negatively affect public political discourse, making it imperative for social media platforms to implement more robust content moderation and transparent algorithms. Our findings emphasize the need for improved measures to ensure that search suggestions do not perpetuate misinformation or political bias, thus contributing to a more informed and balanced media environment.