TikTok has a feature that allows employees to boost video views

TikTok has a feature that allows employees to choose to show a certain video to many users on the For You page and thus artificially increase the number of views. For example, the company uses it to show influencers the potential of the platform.

At TikTok the function is in practice called ‘heating’, writes Forbes. TikTok had kept the feature’s existence a secret until now, claiming that only its algorithm could influence which videos make it to the For You page. That’s the primary page of the app that shows videos that users watch.

TikTok and parent company ByteDance, for example, used the function to help influencers who were taking their first steps on the platform to get a lot of views. TikTok employees also use the function to increase the views of influencers with whom TikTok wanted to make a deal. In the past, TikTok also used the feature to push videos that weren’t music videos, back when the platform was mainly used for dance and playback videos.

Employees Forbes spoke to said they had a high degree of control over which videos to push. The article only talks about the US, but it is obvious that ‘heating’ is also possible in other countries. TikTok has a transparency feature that allows users to look up why the app recommends a video, but the option for ‘heating’ is not included.

TikTok For You