Digitalt Ansvar's analysis on TikTok’s dark universe

Digitalt Ansvar is a Danish organisation working towards responsible digital development by analysing and communicating on how technology affects us as individuals and collectively as a community. Created to increase critical thinking about society's not always transparent or obvious acquisition and use of (digital) technologies, Digitalt Ansvar has set out to shed light on and discuss important issues.

"One cut here, one cut there": Analysis of the TikTok 'For You' algorithm

Several studies indicate that children and young people are unhappy. Sometimes to such an extent that they self-harm or attempt suicide. At the same time, there has been a growing awareness of the role of social media and growing number of content about self-harm and suicide on social media. What type of content do children encounter when they enter a social media site like TikTok? And what do TikTok's algorithms mean for those who are already interested in self-harm and depression-related content?

In December 2023, Digitalt Ansvar published an analysis on TikTok's dark universes on its website. The analysis found that TikTok’s algorithm is designed to provide more of the type of content that each user interacts with, even if it is content about self-harm, suicide, mental illness and severe emotions directed at the individual. The speed at which a vulnerable user’s 'For You' page ends with a high frequency of depression and self-harm content depends on when the user is first exposed to a video falling within this category. 

Out of four vulnerable profiles, two of the profiles have a feed that exposes the user to between 70-80% depression and self-harm content in intervals after only 15 minutes. The other two profiles are minutes away from ending up in a similar feed at the same time. However, after the first exposure, the vulnerable users' To You pages are all characterised by a high frequency of self-harm and suicide-related content - in shorter sequences up to 80-100%.

The depression and self-harm related content that the trial users have been exposed to on TikTok only rarely consists of words such as self-harm and suicide. Users were also not exposed to visual representations of self-harm. Instead, the phenomena are referred to through paraphrases, which are often quite clear.

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