TikTok's algorithm promotes content favorable to the Chinese Communist Party and suppresses content that is critical of the CCP, The Hill reported Tuesday, citing a study by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) of Rutgers University.

By analyzing TikTok's algorithm, the NCRI study — titled "The CCP's Digital Charm Offensive" — found "compelling and strong circumstantial evidence" that TikTok content is manipulated by the Chinese government.

The study's authors admit the findings are "not definitive proof of state orchestration," and noted FBI Director Christopher Wray is among the top U.S. intel officials who admit that such manipulation would be "difficult to detect," The Hill reported.

It is the latest blow to the social media platform, whose owner, China-based ByteDance, is under increasing pressure to sell its U.S. assets or face a permanent ban in the country. TikTok reportedly has 1.04 billion monthly active users worldwide, including 170 million in the U.S.

The study shows that much of the pro-China content originates from state-linked entities that include media outlets and influencers, such as tourist vloggers who wax poetically about Chinese regions such as Xinxiang, where the government has imprisoned more than 1 million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities.

"This suggests that TikTok's content may contribute to psychological manipulation of users, aligning with the CCP's strategic objective of shaping favorable perceptions among young audiences," the study stated.

An NCRI analysis published in December looked at the volume of posts with certain hashtags — such as "Uyghur," "Xinjiang," "Tibet," and "Tiananmen" — across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. That report found anomalies in TikTok content based on its alignment with the interests of the Chinese government, KQED-FM in San Francisco reported.

For example, researchers wrote, hashtags about Tibet, Hong Kong protests, and the Uyghur population appeared to be underrepresented on TikTok compared with Instagram.

For its new report, NCRI researchers turned to "user journey" data, KQED reported, setting up 24 "sock puppet" accounts to mimic the experience of 16-year-old Americans new to the platform. The accounts searched for each of four target keywords — "Uyghur," "Xinjiang," "Tibet," and "Tiananmen" — on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram; clicked on the first post that appeared; and scrolled through subsequent videos fed by the algorithm.

In a statement to KQED, a TikTok spokesperson dismissed the study. The spokesperson said many TikTok accounts use unrelated hashtags to drive traffic to their content and that it's a practice common across all social media platforms.

All platforms algorithmically promote engagement, so if a video is proving popular, TikTok's algorithm is designed to elevate it, not bury it.

"This non-peer reviewed, flawed experiment was clearly engineered to reach a false, predetermined conclusion," the spokesperson wrote. "Creating fake accounts that interact with the app in a prescribed manner does not reflect real users' experience, just as this so-called study does not reflect facts or reality."

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