TikTok - over one
billion of us use it.
In just a few years,
it's changed the world.
But is it now changing us?
If I was a copper today,
I'd be absolutely furious
with TikTok.
TikTok seems to be driving
some users into a frenzy.
You have blood on your hands!
From witch hunts
by amateur sleuths...
TikTokers have been
playing detective.
It has significantly
distracted the investigation.
..to incidents of
copycat violence...
They stole a bus and burned it.
..these frenzies seem to be
fuelled by posting and sharing
on the platform.
It's like wildfires spreading.
You can put out the main
fire, but, like, all of the little fires
are still there and
people can see it.
I'm the BBC's disinformation
and social media correspondent.
Like so many of us, I'm
obsessed with TikTok.
Sometimes I think that maybe
the TikTok algorithm knows me
better than I know myself.
And I want to know whether it's
really driving antisocial behaviour.
TikTok will send you an
encouragement telling you
you're a hit, keep going.
TikTok incentivises
creators very, very clearly
by paying them money.
If so, are the company
aware of what's going on?
Or is the machine
out of control?
Am I looking at this one?
Sorry, I just f*cked this up.
It's all right. Take two.
I'm Taylor Cohen. I worked
at TikTok in New York
between the years
of 2020 and 2022,
as a global creative strategist.
I was a really early
adopter of the platform.
I couldn't put it down,
for like, days, months,
which turned into years. Started
to see more of my friends joining
and just saw it
as not going away,
and I just needed
to be a part of it.
But do you have a blue
North Face TikTok hat?
Because I do.
TikTok is different than
anything that ever came before it.
If I met somebody who didn't
understand how the TikTok
algorithm worked, I would
explain it to them in this way.
Do you want to see what
you actually are interested in?
TikTok is a content graph,
meaning that the algorithm
serves you content
based on topics you like.
So, as an example, if you really
like dogs and you start to see
maybe one or two TikToks
in your feed of dogs,
but you're always
liking that dog post,
you're going to start to see a
lot more dog content in your feed.
Now, on Instagram, the biggest
difference there is, you know,
that's a social graph, meaning
you're only going to see content
based upon other
people's influence.
So, your other friends liking posts,
how many followers the person has,
how much engagement
they're getting.
When I think about
TikTok, it's allowing anybody
to show up at the top of your
feed or in the first couple of like,
swipes, whatever it is.
But it's so relevant to
you and it's so catered
that you feel like you're actually
living in this like, experience,
with other people, where you're
like, "Oh, wow, I feel that same way."
And I can't say, like, at least
for myself, I've never experienced
that on any other
social platform, ever.
I'm Jeff Allen. I'm the co-founder
and chief research officer
at the Integrity Institute.
Videos uploaded to TikTok are
public, which means that anyone
on Earth can see them.
It's much more about discovery.
It's much more about seeing
content that is new and novel.
It does mean that the algorithm is
much more in control and has much
more influence over
what users are seeing.
You don't quite know what you're
going to see, when you log into it.
Four students stabbed to
death in their off-campus house
while two of their
housemates slept.
Those are the bare facts of a crime
committed on the 13th of November
in the small college
town of Moscow, Idaho.
In November 2022,
four students from the
University of Idaho were m*rder*d
in their bedrooms, while two
surviving housemates slept.
Unfounded speculation around
who committed the murders
gripped TikTok.
So, like everybody
else on TikTok,
I'm obsessed with this.
I'd never heard
of Moscow, Idaho.
But the murders quickly flooded
my feed before being widely
covered by the media.
I'm f*cking over The TikTok
detectives are all
over this f*cking app.
Within a few days, I was
almost seeing nothing else.
I discovered that TikTok
users were uniquely obsessed
with the case.
I found videos on TikTok using
the Idaho 4 hashtag racked up
two billion views compared to
just 80,000 views on YouTube
over the same period. The case
seemed to generate more engagement
on TikTok than any of the
other social media sites.
So I was doing some digging
and I went on Maddie, which is one
of the victims' Instagram, and I saw
that she has a boyfriend named Jake.
Sleuths trying to solve mysteries
online happens all the time.
But what I noticed was how so
many people were getting involved
in baseless speculation, who
didn't seem to have posted
about true crime before,
getting huge numbers of views,
sharing theories about a m*rder
that they had limited knowledge of.
What I think happened is
that Kaylee had a stalker.
The more extreme the
views, the more interest
they seemed to attract.
This is Kaylee, and this is
her ex. And everyone's like,
"Kaylee was the target,
Kaylee was the target."
Like many, I found myself
watching video after video.
I was hooked by people
throwing around accusations
about who they believed
to be the m*rder suspect.
I am starting to believe more
and more that Jack was involved.
Stop thinking that you are on
an episode of Law And Order.
These are actual lives.
Some TikTokers, including
those who lived in Moscow, Idaho,
started to call out
what was happening.
These are real f*cking
lives that you are discussing
and ruining.
People died. f*cking stop.
One of the main theories involved
someone called Jack Showalter.
Dubbed "Hoodie
Guy" by TikTokers,
he was falsely accused
of being involved.
Jack was caught on CCTV by a
food truck close to two of the victims,
hours before they were k*lled.
The most suspect is grey
Hoodie Guy from the food truck.
He followed them.
This all just ties up.
He had it planned out.
TikTokers deciding he was a
suspect, dissected his life online.
The big rumour going around
is that his parents whisked him
off to South Africa, so
they can't get his DNA.
I think that it was
premeditated.
That's why the main
suspect is now in Africa.
We do not believe the
following individuals are involved
in this crime. A male specifically
wearing a white hoodie.
It's not Jack Showalter.
It has nothing to do with
my family or the Showalters.
His sister released a TikTok
asking the witch-hunt to stop.
There were so many
victims that were created
through internet
sleuth videos like this.
We have received
threats and harassment.
Um...
..and...we didn't deserve that.
Jack didn't deserve that.
I'm Jasmine, and I worked
as a TikTok moderator in 2022.
I think it's fair to say that
TikTok has a unique quality
to it that makes it especially
sticky for people to engage
in trends. Because you feel like
everyone else is already doing it,
so what does it matter if I
also engage in this trend?
When really, it's kind of feeding
the algorithm and it's making
this topic more popular
by you posting about it.
You could see it, as a moderator,
that people would completely pivot
their content and kind of try to
jump on whatever's trendy right now.
So right now, we are
driving to Moscow, Idaho.
We just flew out from Florida.
While most joined in from their
homes, I found one TikToker
called Olivia, who took
things a step further.
She decided to visit the scene.
This is the home where four
students were brutally stabbed to death.
One of her posts even
racked up over 20 million views.
A reddish coloured
substance, believed to be blood,
can be seen coming
from Xana's room.
Many were gripped by her videos.
Others were more critical
and asked her to stop.
But she kept posting.
It is insanely disrespectful
to go ahead and make
a little mock documentary
for a 15-second TikTok video
of an active crime.
In this leaked screenshot from
surveillance footage, it shows
the girls speaking
with Kaylee's ex.
I wanted to understand what
was driving her to speculate
about the case.
She agreed to meet me
in Florida, where she lives.
There was something about
it that really drew me to it,
and I just felt this need to go out
there and dig for answers and see
if I can help out in any way.
Right here is the home where
the four University of Idaho students
were m*rder*d.
I was at the location for a week,
talking to people, to neighbours,
to students, and trying
to get a feel for who could
have possibly done this.
How far is Moscow,
Idaho, from here in Florida?
Moscow, Idaho is about
a six or seven-hour flight,
I think. That is a
long way to go?
Yeah, it was very long,
but the content that I make
where I am actually at the scene
of something, does much better
versus if I was just at
home sitting somewhere
and talking about a case, because
I'm showing them - this is exactly
what is happening right now.
What has been the reaction
on the ground when you turn up
at different locations
to cover these cases?
Typically, the reaction is
positive, but sometimes that's not
always the case. I think one
example of a hostile situation
was the Summer Wells case.
Something bad happened here
and her mother won't talk about it.
Five-year-old Summer Wells
went missing in June 2021.
11 acres of forest.
Her toys are still scattered
about in her back yard.
Olivia was one of the people
investigating the case on TikTok.
Summer's parents say
that she was abducted.
At one point, they said that
she just walked out the back door
by herself. A neighbour says they
heard a loud scream around the time
she went missing.
Her parents were not named as
suspects, and there was no evidence
at the time to suggest
they were involved.
Yet they were pursued
by rumours on social media
that they were
somehow responsible.
Another rumour is that
one of Summer's siblings say
they saw their father holding
Summer's lifeless body,
running out of the house.
There's a cemetery across
the street from their home.
We spent days searching
for Summer, but found nothing.
Olivia was one of a group
of TikTokers who turned up
outside the parents'
house in Tennessee.
Summer's parents spoke out about
the harm the unfounded allegations
were causing.
This is the hardest time
of me and Candus's life.
You lose your daughter
and then you get blamed for it
and then everybody turns on you.
Her parents didn't want
anyone to really help search
for their missing daughter.
You told me you couldn't
come to church today.
Her parents actually shot
a flare g*n at my mother
and I and some friends.
Was that scary? It was,
it was a bit scary.
But I just kind of get in this
zone where I'm like, kind of
in my own little world, and
I don't even really realise.
Does it ever feel
like a movie to you,
almost as a coping mechanism,
like, that distance that you put
between yourself and the
case? I feel a lot of people
will accuse me of, or say that
I sensationalise these stories
and that it's bad. But
I don't see it like that.
I'm a very empathic person.
It's just the way that I edit
that people see it as, like,
a Netflix thing, and that's why
they say I'm sensationalising things.
Two years later,
Summer remains missing.
The police have
kept the case open.
OK, here's part six.
And we found two men's ankle
socks, and this was probably a couple
of feet away from where
his remains were found.
I felt it was almost like Olivia
didn't realise the harm this kind
of behaviour could cause the
people living through tragedies.
For people who don't watch this
kind of content, they could find it
quite unusual, quite unusual
that someone would go to the place
where a disappearance has
happened, or murders have happened,
and record it and
look for information.
Do you think it's unusual?
I do see how that could be unusual
for people that aren't on TikTok,
but I think it's a new
thing that is happening
and it will become more
normal. It's the beginning.
It's kind of like the
Wild West out here.
I do worry that I could accidentally
give out wrong information.
I won't go out of my way
to talk about someone,
unless I really believe
that they're really involved.
It's a new type of journalism.
Journalism has changed.
It's not like how it was before.
Now, you don't need a diploma.
You don't need a
degree to really do it.
You just need your
phone, that's all you need.
And sometimes I can even
post controversial things.
I can post about information that
some news companies would need
confirmation about before
posting, but I have just me,
so I could just
post it. I can do that.
I have the power to do that.
So, we finished searching,
um, in the northern part of...
Olivia says she's a journalist,
but what she's doing is not subject
to the codes of practice
that govern traditional media.
I'm obliged not to promote
false or unfounded theories.
We're about half
a mile out here,
Over.
At the moment, TikTok regulates
itself and says it removes content
that breaches its community
guidelines, including
misinformation and hate.
The Online Safety Bill is expected
to become law in the UK at the end
of 2023, and says it will force
social media sites to uphold
their commitments
to protect users.
If they don't, they
could face hefty fines.
But speculation about the Idaho
murders felt like a free-for-all.
I think that TikTok does
encourage people to participate
more than other apps,
because you can just
be sitting on your couch
and make a video, and
then reach tonnes of people.
One video on TikTok
could get millions of plays,
versus if I post the
same video on Instagram,
it'll get, like, 200 views.
It's much easier to
go viral on TikTok.
And there isn't this barrier of
developing a huge following.
You know, maybe the second
video that you upload, TikTok decides
is a great video to show
everyone, and boom,
you're off to 20 million views.
As something gets more harmful,
things tend to get more engagement.
These algorithmically ranked
systems are all floating bad content
to the top. If you see - oh, this
video, someone's doing something
very dangerous in it and
they're getting a lot of views, cool,
maybe I'll do something dangerous.
You know, someone's doing something
that's very disruptive and damaging,
you know, to their community.
You're like, OK, well, maybe I
will disrupt my community too,
and maybe I will get a
lot of views if I do that.
So how does
TikTok deal with this?
Does it actually incentivise
users to take part,
even if it causes harm?
My name is Lara.
I was a content moderator at
TikTok in the Australian market
from 2020 to 2022.
I saw a lot of trends that were
either super dangerous, but people
got the thrill out of being
involved in something.
TikTok has definitely impacted
how people act, how people behave,
how people treat others.
TikTok gives you that opportunity
to see something that's happening
and then suddenly feel
like, Oh, I need to go there.
It's an hour away, I can film
myself doing that, I can be relevant.
I think that's when people forget
that fine line of what is socially
acceptable and what's not, but
also what's legal and what's not.
And then other people are watching
and think that that person is right.
They follow, they copy.
If you were face-to-face
with that person,
you wouldn't be commenting the
things that you are commenting.
But because it feels like
you're just talking to friends,
and you see hundreds of other people
who have also done the same thing,
it becomes much more
socially acceptable.
If you see someone attacking
a person, you clearly know
that's wrong, but that's always
going to be taken off TikTok.
But if you see someone invading
their privacy or bullying them,
that's a bit more grey
in terms of how people
take it in and accept.
In December 2022, a man was
arrested and charged with the murders
of the four Idaho
students. He's awaiting trial.
It seems to me that Olivia and
other TikTokers found themselves
caught up in a sort of frenzy.
As more extreme allegations
were made about the case,
they were encouraged to
get involved, forgetting about
the consequences and
the real people targeted.
So why do these frenzies
happen on TikTok?
When you post a video on TikTok,
rather than just being promoted
to your friends and followers,
it will appear on the feeds
of other users who TikTok
thinks could be interested in it.
Depending on how they engage
with that video, the algorithm
might decide this is something
people like and push it to millions
more at a speed and scale that
doesn't seem possible on other
social media platforms.
After seeing the original
video's success, other users
might then decide to create
their own versions, which in turn
will be sent out to more people.
And the cycle starts again.
And so you have a TikTok
frenzy, often with users pushing it
to new extremes to get noticed,
because the likes and views
make them think that it's OK.
These frenzies are
different on TikTok
because of its emphasis
on participation.
From the outset, when people
came to it as a dance app,
getting involved has
been a key part of its DNA.
TikTok inspires participation
more than any other platform.
I truly believe it is THE
participatory platform.
SCREAM Oh, yeah!
But the really cool thing about
TikTok and TikTok frenzies,
is that people try...
They don't just recreate it.
They put their own spin on it.
And so you start to see what
the original piece of content was
that went viral and led
to this TikTok frenzy,
and then you'll see, like, the
last video that kind of like blew up
and it's nowhere
near the first one.
And it's so cool to
see, like, the creativity
that the community brings
to those TikTok frenzies.
My name is Chris Stokel-Walker.
I'm a journalist and the
author of TikTok Boom.
Traditionally, in social media,
you have been passive consumers -
you've watched videos wash over
you through the app's delivery of them.
But with TikTok, you are
actively encouraged to participate,
and it's because that allows
them to essentially ensure
that you go from being
someone who can dip in and out,
to being someone who
is actively invested in this.
What unfolded on TikTok
around this police investigation
felt different to me.
I wondered whether this
was just a US phenomenon.
But then it happened again.
REPORTER: Just what has
happened to Nikki Bulley?
She vanished from this Lancashire
river bank last Friday morning,
a mum of two young girls
who'd just dropped off at school,
and was taking her
dog for its regular walk.
Nikki's mobile phone
was found on this bench.
It was still connected to
a work conference call.
Her spaniel, a short while later,
was found wandering nearby.
Local people who
saw it, say it was dry
and hadn't been in the river.
That leash was meant to be
there and so was that phone.
It was a set-up.
Similar to Idaho, a frenzy
began around her disappearance.
I spotted it on my TikTok feed
before it totally flooded the news.
According to TikTok, it
deploys additional resources
to reduce the potential
spread of conspiratorial content
about unfolding events.
But as the days went
on, the witch-hunts began,
accusing friends and family
of Nicola of being involved.
FEMALE VOICE: He just gives
me bad vibes. What do you think?
One TikTok account was
racking up millions of views,
posting speculation about Nicola's
friend Emma and her partner Paul.
MALE VOICE: I believe
Emma posed as Nicola
the morning she
was reported missing.
Does this support my theory?
Same socks or same person?
FEMALE VOICE: You can clearly
see Paul's reflection right here
and also note how
he is in darkness,
while the girls and Nikki
are photographed with flash.
MALE VOICE: Who are these people
and why were they allowed to be present?
Why are you hiding?
Do they know something we don't?
The person behind this TikTok
account has agreed to meet me.
Hello. Hi! Lovely to
meet you. You too.
Heather had never
really used TikTok before,
but this case caught
her attention on the app.
And she says TikTok
inspired her to get involved.
So I went on TikTok to look
at the real person's perspective
on the Nicola Bulley
case. I think the initial posts
were all just pleas,
trying to find her,
little descriptions of
what she was wearing,
retracing her
footsteps from the day.
But there's the dark side,
where the conspiracists
were unpicking her life,
scrutinising the people involved
in her life, and I think that's then
what engages natural curiosity.
When you're being constantly
surrounded by those kinds of videos,
can it become
quite difficult to say,
"Oh, hold up a second -
is that true, is that false?"
I think it's very easy to fall
down, like, a conspiracy hole.
Any little thing can
become suspicious
when you're looking at it over
and over and almost wanting
to find discrepancies
in people's stories.
MALE VOICE: This
is so obvious to me.
Emma posed as Nicola.
This is meant to be
doorbell footage of Nicola.
Heather posted a video
scrutinising doorbell footage
of Nicola leaving the house on
the morning of her disappearance.
She falsely implied the
footage actually showed
Nicola's best friend Emma
pretending to be Nicola.
I can't be the only
one seeing this.
Do they share jewellery?
How viral did it go?
So, it got to 3.6
million within 72 hours.
That level of expl*si*n was
just completely unexpected.
Whenever you post
something and it gains traction,
TikTok will send you little
emails of encouragement,
telling you that, you've
received this many views,
"You're a hit. Keep going."
And, you know, it's there to
encourage you to keep posting.
If you post something and you
receive a lot of positivity from it,
I think that can definitely
change your behaviour,
whereas, before, you might not
have had that level of empowerment
or entitlement, and now
all of a sudden, you feel that
you've got this authority to keep
posting whatever you've done before.
And I think it does... Definitely
has the power to alter people's
perspective on reality.
There was, I think,
around 10,000 comments
just on that one video alone.
There are obviously, dotted
in there, quite a*usive ones -
you know, "You're immoral,"
"you're making money
off the misery of people,"
and that's just not true.
We've got two beautiful little
girls that need their mummy home,
and that's what's
keeping us going.
But, again, the
community is united...
As interest in the case grew,
Emma spoke to the media
about the disappearance.
This led to TikTokers
analysing her behaviour
and claiming she was involved.
Emma White is really beginning to
grind on me for a number of reasons.
What's the need
for all the make-up?
MALE VOICE: Her
make-up is always done well.
The negative that sticks
in my mind is Emma White,
who I don't trust.
MALE VOICE: I believe the
CCTV footage to be that of Emma.
And it wasn't just Emma.
Nicola's partner Paul also
became a particular target
of false claims on TikTok.
Can you not see through him?
He's lying through his teeth.
What doesn't sit right
with me with this gentleman
is his body language.
Very relaxed, no emotion.
His face... There's some confusion,
as the sides of his mouth go up
and his brow goes down.
It's all so ridiculous,
his head and his scarf.
England is not
particularly cold,
so it makes you wonder
what he's trying to hide.
These theories were wrong.
Emma and Paul were innocent.
Lancashire Police said that they
are continuing to see a huge amount
of commentary from so-called
experts, ill-informed speculation,
and conspiracy theories,
which they said was damaging
to the investigation, the
community here in St Michael's
and, most importantly,
to Nicola's family.
They said it must stop.
"Our girls will get
the support they need
"from the people who
love them the most.
"And it saddens us
to think that one day,
"we will have to explain to them
that the press and members of the
"public accused their
dad of wrongdoing...
"..misquoted and
vilified friends and family.
"This is absolutely appalling.
"They have to be
held accountable.
"This cannot happen
to another family."
The police announcements didn't
stop some users from posting about
the case, even though
the speculation was causing
serious harm to a family
already living through the worst.
Do you think that when
lots and lots of other people
are posting about something,
sharing their views about it,
and millions of
people are watching it,
do you think it can make
us a bit desensitised?
When you're seeing video after
video after video of the same content,
on the same topic, it's
very easy to just think,
"Well, I can join in on that.
And I'm just another person."
I've had to remind myself,
"These are other people's lives.
"And it's not just a video
that's going to go nowhere -
"it's potentially going
to blow up in your face,
"and then you are accountable."
I think that's the danger of TikTok,
is that if somebody posts something
that isn't factual, then
it gets a lot of views
and then it sort of
becomes a conspiracy.
Since speaking to me,
Heather deleted her posts
about Nicola Bulley.
Heather seemed to really regret
becoming caught up in this frenzy,
and she told me that without
TikTok, she just doesn't think
she would have
participated in this way.
The press was also to blame for
what unfolded around this case,
but it was on TikTok where
some of the misinformation
that couldn't be aired
by the traditional media
spread like wildfire. It all
became really out of control.
A study by the Integrity Institute
measured how much engagement
certain creators received
on inaccurate posts
compared to their other posts.
They found that misinformation
was amplified 25 times on TikTok,
compared to 2.4
times on Instagram
and 3.8 times on Facebook.
The platform that did the
least worst is Instagram,
and that is actually a design...
..an implication of how
Instagram is designed.
It's very much dependent
upon who you follow,
there's no reshare
or retweet button,
and most of the views are not coming
from algorithmic recommendations.
Like the other social
media sites, TikTok do have
specialised misinformation
moderators, equipped with tools
to help keep misinformation
off the platform.
The fact-checking tool is
something they brought in,
and it felt very much as
a response to the criticism
TikTok was getting in the media.
So, they wanted
something for moderators,
so they could look up in
real time what was happening.
Actually using the fact-checking
tool was quite complicated.
Sometimes the fact-checkers
weren't really, like, clear
on what they have to fact-check.
So, for normal users who don't
have this privilege of a fact-check tool,
yeah, it's having
a really real effect.
And it is changing
people's minds about things.
It is quite steep down here.
Similar to Idaho, the frenzy on
TikTok around the Nicola Bulley case
grew exponentially.
Within the first three
weeks of her disappearance,
I found videos using the hashtag
of her name had 270 million views
on TikTok, compared to
just 3.3 million on YouTube.
Yet what was different
was the number of TikTokers
turning up at the scene.
This caused the police to
take the unprecedented move
of calling out the
interference by TikTokers
and issuing a dispersal
order around the area.
TikTokers have been playing
their own private detectives.
In 29 years' police service,
I've never seen anything like it.
It has significantly
distracted the investigation.
Hi, guys. My name
is Spencer Sutcliffe
from Spencer Sutcliffe
Security and Training Ltd...
Locals even employed
a private security firm
to keep TikTokers away.
..all these conspiracy
theories that are going on
and people taking it as fact.
So, if you don't need to
come to the village, guys,
please just stay away.
The caravan site close to the
bench where Nicola went missing
soon became a central focal
point for the TikTok sleuths.
There is a caravan site
with a CCTV blind spot
that the police haven't
bothered to look into.
That's a map of the caravan
park, and as you can see,
it backs onto the river
where Nicola was last seen.
There has been some mention of
CCTV, specifically at the caravan site,
that hasn't been working,
and that that's suspicious itself.
That is not the case.
We have been helped and
assisted beyond all belief
by the caravan owners.
Hello! Hello. Nice to see
you. How are you doing?
Not bad, thank you. Thanks
for having me. You're welcome!
I've come to meet Oliver,
whose family own the caravan site.
So, tell me a bit about
this caravan park.
When did your family come here?
My grandparents bought
this place in the late '90s.
All these fields here
where the campers stay
and the house is
owned by my granny.
And she sort of runs the business
and she lives there as well.
Yeah... THEY LAUGH
I'd spotted how Oliver's
78-year-old grandmother Penny
found herself at the centre of
some TikTok conspiracy theories.
My grandmother was the one
who found poor Nicola's dog
at the bench by the river.
Things sort of
snowballed from there,
as national papers
started to pick up the story,
and then others unfortunately
started to come up
with their own sort of
theories as to what happened.
People talking about
this tragic case online
found out that my grandmother
lives just mere yards
from where Nicola was last seen.
The theories started, and
the TikTok videos, of course,
began to be produced.
And, of course, the theories
just got wilder and wilder.
Within days, if not hours,
that quickly escalated
to people finding out what
my grandmother's name is,
the address being posted online.
People started to physically
turn up in the village
and to start to take
photos of the house.
And one particular TikToker
came onto the property
and started to speak to some
of our customers at our business.
And then the same TikToker
then approached my grandmother.
MAN: We actually came on
just to look around how big it is.
That's all it was.
What do you think you're doing?
Cos it was open, we walked
in. It's not open. Off you go!
Go on, both of you!
So you got...no
words to say, no?
No, nothing to say... No, no.
Do you have anything to
say about Nicola Bulley?
Nothing at all! Nothing?
Go on. Nothing at all.
Off you go. OK.
He stood in front of her,
asking her questions,
trying to provoke her,
antagonise her into a reaction.
To have... You know, my
grandmother's a 78-year-old woman
who lives on her own.
To have people effectively come
to her door, filming her, was...
It was frightening for
all of us, as a family.
And she said that she feels like
someone may come and attack her
and to try and k*ll her.
They've been intrusive,
intimidating, antagonistic -
and all for getting clicks and
likes and to earn money online.
This same TikToker, Curtis
Arnold, achieved notoriety
for his invasive
videos around the case.
A man has been arrested over
footage shot from inside a police cordon
on the day the body of
Nicola Bulley was found
in a river in
Lancashire last month.
To try and catch them recovering
a deceased body from the water
is absolutely disgusting.
But even the TikTok community
thought he'd taken it too far
when he shared a video of
himself getting past the cordon
to film the removal
of Nicola's body.
Police say the 34-year-old man
from Kidderminster was detained
on suspicion of malicious
communication offences
and perverting the
course of justice.
TikTok incentivises creators very,
very clearly by paying them money.
If you have a large following
on TikTok and your videos
are getting typically high
view rates, TikTok will pay you,
so there's very,
very clear incentive
to get as many
views as possible.
TikTok pays creators with over
10,000 followers between $20 and $40
per million views.
It's unclear how much Curtis Arnold
made from his social media posts.
If you can make
this your living,
or if you can build up an
audience and a little bit of credibility
and maybe even
some fame through this,
you're much more
likely to log on every day.
So there's this kind of
vicious circle that you go in,
where you kind of are shown content,
you're encouraged to make content,
you're given the first taste of fame
from that content and, therefore,
you create more and more and
constantly feed that algorithm
for TikTok.
It's almost natural to
become a reverse engineer
of the TikTok algorithm, to do
what the algorithm wants you to do,
do the kind of stuff that gets
you lots of views and impressions.
This will very naturally sort of
influence people's behaviour
and, you know, the videos
that they actually do create.
Do you think that it's
changed how people behave
and how people think
it's acceptable to behave,
these kinds of TikTok
videos and posts online?
I think 20 years ago, this
simply wouldn't have happened.
The village has been turned
into a tourist attraction -
a fairground, almost - where
people think that they can come here
and film our family home as if
it's some sort of macabre exhibit.
TikTok have a responsibility.
And I'd like to ask,
"Do they think they are
"taking that responsibility
seriously enough?"
Cos I certainly
don't think they are.
An inquest has determined
that Nicola's death
was due to accidental drowning.
From investigating these cases,
it seems to me that something
new is happening on TikTok.
The social media site appears to
be recommending this kind of content
to users who just wouldn't
have come across it before,
and then they decide to participate
in a way that they just wouldn't
have done previously. It's
almost like a m*rder mystery game,
and it gets really
out of control.
There are misleading and false
claims targeting innocent people,
and they seem to be
enjoyed by millions.
So, are TikTok aware
of what's going on?
And what are
they doing about it?
I've tracked down someone
who used to be on the inside
for some answers.
We've revoiced him and are calling
him Lucas to protect his identity.
I worked in a role in
data strategy and analysis,
particularly focused on revenue
and the profit-driving
side of the business.
Do you think when you were
there that they were equipped
to become more than
just a dancing app,
that they were equipped
to deal with videos about
stuff happening in the news about
a whole range of different issues?
No, because it grew so fast that
they couldn't possibly keep up with
or predicted every single
way the app was going to go.
But in terms of dangerous
content, at least, I haven't ever heard
of them trying to proactively
prevent them from getting big.
And in general,
they don't want to.
They don't want to stand in the
way of entertainment growing quickly
on their platform. They don't
want to be content moderators
because then they are
responsible for the content.
You said that phrase - "They
don't want to get in the way
"of entertainment
and of growth."
Why is that? Money?
Yeah, it's about money.
The more users they
have on the platform,
spending more
time watching videos,
they can sell more ads,
sell them for a higher price.
It feels like an engine to
make revenue off people's time
in unproductive ways.
It feels potentially dangerous,
and it's hard to get excited
about working towards that goal.
It's probably the most addictive
platform that we've encountered yet,
and I think that's a real danger,
especially because of how young
the audience is and how
impressionable they are.
There was evidence that Tiktok's
algorithm was in some way driving
the frenzy of strange behaviour
in both the Bulley and Idaho cases.
But how widespread
was the problem?
Was there evidence that TikTok
was connected to other outbreaks
of unusual behaviour?
SHOUTING
Oh, my God!
The so-called "TikTok protests"
have continued to take place
in Britain's schools, as hundreds
of pupils rebelled against teachers
over new rules, with some
clips attracting millions of views.
In February 2023,
another frenzy took hold,
this time in Britain's schools.
A protest at Rainford High
about school uniform checks
was posted on TikTok,
and within three days, students
at over 60 schools filmed protests.
Within a week, there were
over 100 schools involved.
Windows were smashed,
trees were set on fire
and teachers were pushed over.
School protests aren't new,
but I noticed that a
significant number of students
seemed to be behaving in
an unusually extreme way.
Some schools were
forced to get police involved.
According to TikTok, most of
the videos showed pupils engaging
in peaceful demonstrations,
but it all felt quite familiar to me -
the sheer speed at which
the posts spread on TikTok
and the way the users felt
emboldened to participate.
Most of the worrying
videos we would see
were by really young users.
These kind of, like, frenzies of,
like, what is currently cool to do
in a school has
always been the case,
but I feel like what TikTok
is enabling people to do now
is to take one thing
that's viral in one school
and transporting it to,
like, the whole region
and making it a competition
in who can up the other schools
and make it more extreme?
TikTok itself will not
solve these problems
because these frenzies,
it is good for the business.
During the school protests,
I decided to see what type of
content the algorithm might offer
a 15-year-old
boy's For You feed,
so I set up an
undercover account.
Right, so these are
all videos about football
because we've shown
an interest in football.
School uniforms - what is it?
It's a lovely thing
provided by the school...
It's not even provided by
the schools, by the way.
It looks sh*t, it feels sh*t and it
costs way too much for what it is.
The fourth post that came up
was an influencer called Adrian,
who posts self-improvement
videos, and seemed to be encouraging
anti-school behaviour.
You know school is pointless
and you know it's not helping you
prepare for your
future one little bit.
What are we doing here?!
I'll tell you what - being sl*ves
to the government, making sure
the institution that is a worker
and sl*ve development plan
continues to function...
Over the next few
days, the algorithm drove
more and more of
his content to my feed.
Some b*tch told me I need to
sit here in this shitty plastic chair.
They have the
audacity to tell the youth
what to do with their future!
I teach not to be reliant on
higher-ups and teachers. I teach...
Attached to Adrian's account
is a link to his business.
Thousands of teachers across
the UK are worried about me.
They literally did me a favour.
They gave me free exposure.
Thank you to those of you
who continue to stand up for me
against schools, against
teachers, against the boards.
I started to look at some of
the comments under his videos.
Many seemed to be from
teenage boys in the UK.
They suggested that some of
them were changing their behaviour
after watching Adrian's videos.
Others pushed back after noticing
the behaviour of their friends.
Adrian's agreed to have
a conversation with me.
I want to ask him about his content
and the impact it could be having.
..every single day
without realising...
Not one single piece of content,
not one video that I've put out
is in any way with misinformation
or with hate speech or anything,
any kind of negative
impact towards my audience.
I encourage them to rebel
against ridiculous rules in schools,
where you're discouraged
from simple communication.
I mean, you know, it's crazy.
What do you think about
those kinds of protests?
Do you think
they've gone too far?
Do you think that they still are
within the means of legitimate,
I don't know, opposition
to school rules?
I think these
things are very rare
and they're definitely
extreme, to say the least,
cos if you look at my
following. Let's say...
I've got 1.2 million
followers on my account,
let's say, of which...let's chop it
down to 800K are schoolchildren.
How many of those children,
realistically, were involved
in those acts? I mean,
a tiny, tiny percentage.
I can't control that.
How do you balance making sure
that you are encouraging people
to express what they
think, but not to take it too far
and actually to, you know, harass
teachers or call them horrible names
or make sure that they're
not behaving in, like,
a violent way towards
other people at school?
I mean, how do
you tread that line?
Or is it not possible
to, with your content?
Ultimately, if I'm
putting out a video
to 1.5 million
people, I'm not...
I absolutely cannot cover
for the 200 out of
those 1.5 million people
who decide to do something
absolutely ridiculous.
I mean, in none of my videos
will you ever see me condone
anything like the things
that you've listed up.
I think to say that social
media and TikTok in particular
or my content is to blame for
these things, it's completely false.
What was interesting
about the school frenzy
was that it was real
world from the off.
Users could
participate immediately.
That was maybe one
reason why it spiked so quickly
and with such intensity.
A few months later, in June,
I spotted some more protests
involving young people
unfolding in France.
Protests and unrest erupted in
the region around Paris overnight
after police shot dead a 17-year-old
who failed to stop when ordered to.
The statement from the
police saying the police officers
were feeling threatened
and had to sh**t,
but this video posted
on social media
had a completely
different tell of the story.
This is what created
a lot of anger.
The French President
Emmanuel Macron
is holding a crisis
meeting right now.
He has called for calm.
They stole a bus and burned it.
The French President levelled
the blame at TikTok and Snapchat.
TRANSLATION:
Was there another
TikTok frenzy at play?
Or was the French President
just deflecting responsibility
from a shocking incident
that provoked mass unrest?
I looked through the content
spreading on social media
using Nahel's name.
On Snapchat, I found public
videos racking up over 167,000 views.
That doesn't include private
chats that I can't access.
Even then, on TikTok,
videos using this hashtag
racked up over
853 million views.
Quite a few of the TikToks
were Snapchat videos reshared
with a much higher reach than
just friends or those who live locally.
The kind of problem
that we're seeing now is
bad behaviour in
one part of the world
can very quickly spread
to other parts of the world.
And so, you know, when you
log on to TikTok, in some respects,
you're looking at all
of the bad behaviour
from all of the different locations
in the country, all at once,
and so, you know, it's
only natural to imagine
that's going to inspire
some copycatting.
The French protests
don't surprise me.
TikTok can definitely
drive more eyeballs in a way
that escalates situations.
I don't think it can
validate behaviour.
Groupthink is very real,
especially in places like TikTok.
I do think TikTok wants
to de-amplify content
that's explicitly dangerous,
but it doesn't want to overly
censor or slow things down
which are developing as viral.
And that can be a
tricky line to walk.
But on the other hand, TikTok
can make people aware of protests
in a positive way too.
I spotted several videos
showing violence and devastation
in a town called Viry-Chatillon.
Protests seem to have
spread at an unusually fast rate
and with an unusual intensity.
Bonjour! Bonjour, Marianna!
What part did TikTok play here?
Jean is the town's mayor.
The French EU Commissioner
criticised social media sites
for not doing enough
to deal with the content.
As a moderator, it felt like
you were there as kind of a front
for TikTok to say that
they were trying their best.
But you were very much
aware while you were moderating
that this is an impossible task
because of the speed of how quickly
someone can upload something and
it being available for everyone to see.
You're constantly playing
catch-up with, like, an invisible beast,
which the algorithm is. It's
kind of like wildfire spreading.
So you can kind of
put out the main fire,
but, like, all of the
little fires are still there
and people can see it and...
Yeah, it's dangerous.
SCREAMING
Only weeks after my trip to
Paris, something else happened -
disorder in the centre of London,
with hundreds of teenagers
descending on Oxford Circus,
talking about looting the shops.
Police issued a dispersal order.
Sadiq Khan directly
blamed social media.
I'm worried about this
nonsense we've seen on TikTok
encouraging people
to go to Oxford Street.
I'd encourage anybody
who's seen that not to go.
Don't allow yourself to be
sucked in by this sort of criminality.
What seemed to have started
on Snapchat, like in France,
had been picked up and
shared more widely on TikTok.
Several I've spoken to told me
that if they hadn't seen those videos
on TikTok, they
wouldn't have turned up.
If I was a copper today, I'd be
absolutely furious with TikTok,
and I want the Government
to throw the book at that lot.
That should never
have been allowed up.
When I first started using TikTok
during the Covid-19 pandemic,
it was all dances
and life hacks.
Now almost every
major global news event
unfolds on my For
You page in real time,
including events I just wouldn't
have come across before.
When I first heard about
those Idaho murders,
I had no idea what I'd uncover.
Having spoken to TikTok insiders
and people caught up in these frenzies,
it seems to me that they're
really difficult to get on top of -
and not just that, but
there isn't the incentive to.
After all, a slower and
less participatory TikTok
doesn't seem to be the goal
for the social media company.
All of these frenzies
seem really out of control,
but what happens when someone
works out how to harness them -
and the behaviour connected
to them - for their own aims?
That seems pretty scary.
Do you think TikTok is
good or bad for the world?
I think it's probably
a net negative.
I don't believe that a platform
with short, addictive videos
consuming so much of
our time can be a positive.
If you had children, would
you let them use TikTok?
No, definitely not. I would not
let any of my children use TikTok.
I think it's impossible
to work at TikTok
and to then send your
children on that site as well.
It's very telling that all of the
CEOs of big social media companies,
their children aren't on
social media platforms.
So, long term, I do think it
is necessary for regulation
to step in and create real
incentives for platforms
to design responsibly.
If you just want to maximise,
you know, your usage next week,
show people lots of misinformation,
show people hate speech,
you know, show people
dangerous, violent content,
that is what is going to get people
to watch your platform next week.
If you want to maximise how
many people are using your app
a year from now or
five years from now,
you're going to have to think
about something very, very different.
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TikTok Effect, The (2023)
Moderators: Maskath3, GabrielAlejo2341, sidolanters, Maskath3, sidolanters, GabrielAlejo2341