Classic stars are able to connect with younger audiences born decades after a musician’s first debut and across traditional genres. The platform has also launched many songs that failed to garner initial commercial success into sleeper hits, particularly since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, despite never having toured in Asia, the band Fitz and the Tantrums developed a large following in South Korea following the widespread popularity of their 2016 song “HandClap” on the platform.
- Their short attention spans posed a challenge for TikTok to pivot towards longer content formats.
- Douyin was developed in 200 days and within a year had 100 million users, with more than one billion videos viewed every day.
- The users had shared on TikTok an article published by celebscritic.com alleging that K.
- While TikTok and Douyin share a similar user interface, the platforms operate separately.
- ■ Pause recording multiple times in one videoPause and resume your video with just a tap.
- The app expanded its parental controls feature called “Family Pairing” in September 2020 to provide parents and guardians with educational resources to understand what children on TikTok are exposed to.
TikTok
In January 2020, left-leaning media watchdog Media Matters for America said that TikTok hosted misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic despite a recent policy against misinformation. The platform has also been used to spread misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic, such as clips from Plandemic. In June 2021, TikTok made an apology after a shock video, showing a girl dancing which then cuts to a graphic scene of a man being beheaded by a saw, went viral. Concerns have been voiced regarding content relating to, and the promotion and spreading of, hate speech and far-right extremism, such as antisemitism, islamophobia, racism, and xenophobia. According to their survey, people who use TikTok more than three hours daily are significantly more positive about China’s human rights record compared to those who do not use the app.
This is a concern as many of TikTok’s audience are younger children, whose brains are still developing. TikTok uses popular influencers to encourage viewers to stop using the app and take a break. Vox noted in 2018 that bullies and trolls were relatively rare on TikTok compared to other platforms. In December 2023, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner announced an inquiry into TikTok’s data harvesting of Australian citizens amid allegations that it contravened Australian privacy law.
In Malaysia, TikTok is used by some users to engage in hate speech against race and religion especially mentioning the 13 May incident after the 2022 election. TikTok has since released tougher parental controls to filter out inappropriate content and to ensure they can provide sufficient protection and security. As TikTok has gained popularity among young children, and the popularity of extremist and hateful content is growing, calls for tighter restrictions on their flexible boundaries have been made. Some videos were shown to expressly promote Holocaust denial and told viewers to take up arms and fight in the name of white supremacy and the swastika.
App Privacy
The study compares data from before TikTok even existed to show the app has fewer hashtags about historically sensitive topics, distorting the findings. They have been replaced by versions customized by local teams for users in different regions. TikTok moderators were instructed to suppress posts from “For You” recommendations if the users shown were deemed “too ugly, poor, or disabled”. Other human rights activists have also said that their TikTok videos discussing human rights violations of the Uyghurs have been taken down.
Australian Information Commissioner inquiry
- According to their survey, people who use TikTok more than three hours daily are significantly more positive about China’s human rights record compared to those who do not use the app.
- In 2025, a Canadian investigation found that TikTok had collected sensitive personal data from children in violation of federal privacy laws.
- On 21 December 2024, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced that the Albanian government will shut down TikTok in 2025 for at least a year, following a deadly incident in November 2024 in which a teenager fatally stabbed another teen after a dispute that began on the platform.
- “Midsize” fashion gained greater exposure on TikTok after many creators opened up about not able to find clothing sizes that fit them well.
- A trend making fun of autism eventually created a huge backlash, even on the platform itself, and the company ended up removing the hashtag altogether.
- TikTok responded by saying that Project Texas already is a re-engineering of the app and that the former employee left in 2022 before the project specifications were finalized.
In November 2023, Osama bin Laden’s 2002 “Letter to the American people” went viral on TikTok and other social media. The company stated it banned praising Hamas and removed more than 775,000 videos and 14,000 livestreams. The popularity of pro-Palestine content has also been explained by the app’s younger user base, which has shifted its sympathy away from Israel towards the Palestinians.
■ Watch endless amount of videos customized specifically for youA personalized video feed based on what you watch, like, and share. All you have to do is watch, engage with what you like, skip what you don’t, and you’ll find an ruhtinas endless stream of short videos that feel personalized just for you. On TikTok, short-form videos are exciting, spontaneous, and genuine.
Russian invasion of Ukraine
TikTok raised the minimum age for livestreaming from 16 to 18 after a BBC News investigation found hundreds of accounts going live from Syrian refugee camps. As of January 2026, the features are only available in certain regions, including the United States and Canada. Despite safety concerns, TikTok began rolling out photo, video, and voice messaging around 2025.
TikTok Effects We Love
They also reported that facilities that offered these surgeries were also posting about them on TikTok. In 2020, Charli D’Amelio, the most-followed person on TikTok at the time, also made a #NoseJobCheck video to show the results of her surgery to repair a broken nose. In 2021, it was reported that a trend known as the #NoseJobCheck trend was going viral on TikTok. The article published stats about the most popular plastic surgeons on TikTok up to February 2021 and at the time, five different plastic surgeons had surpassed 1 million followers on the platform.
She noted that the company was potentially violating the GDPR which requires the company to provide different services and different protections for children. In July 2025, the DPC opened a new investigation into TikTok for unauthorized transfers of user data to China. In April 2025, the Ireland DPC fined TikTok over €500 million for illegally sending European user data to China. In September 2023, the DPC fined TikTok €345 million for violations of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) vis-à-vis the mishandling of children data.
Influencers on the platform who earn money through engagement, such as likes and comments, are referred to as “meme machines”. As the platform has grown significantly over the past few years, it has allowed companies to advertise and rapidly reach their intended demographic through influencer marketing. The court cited TikTok’s negligence in failing to implement “necessary and adequate measures” to prevent the viral video challenges. On December 30, 2024, Venezuela’s Supreme Court fined TikTok $10 million over viral challenges that authorities say led to the deaths of three children.
On 21 December 2024, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced that the Albanian government will shut down TikTok in 2025 for at least a year, following a deadly incident in November 2024 in which a teenager fatally stabbed another teen after a dispute that began on the platform. A Meta spokesperson defended the effort, saying that all platforms, including TikTok, should face equal scrutiny. An investigation in 2025 found that TikTok was profiting from sexual livestreams in Kenya involving minors, with teenagers as young as 15 using the platform to solicit explicit content. The Guardian website removed the letter after displaying it for more than 20 years, and TikTok began issuing takedowns of videos featuring the letter. US lawmakers wanting to ban TikTok accused the platform of pushing pro-Hamas and pro-Palestine content. Several former employees of the company have claimed of poor workplace conditions, including the start of the workweek on Sunday to cooperate with Chinese time zones and excessive workload.
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