TikTok's 'Others Searched For' Feature
The search-suggestion feature showed clickbait-style suggestions and redirected users to competing political parties (particularly AfD), potentially distorting political perception among young users.
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AI Forensics, working with an interface TikTok Audit Team, examined TikTok's "Others Searched For" search-suggestion feature during the run-up to Germany's 2024 election, collecting 254 search suggestions tied to nine political parties over a four-week period.
The analysis found that suggestions were often phrased as clickbait rather than reflecting genuine relevance, and that about a quarter of all suggestions redirected users toward content about a different political party than the one originally searched. The far-right AfD appeared disproportionately in these cross-party redirects, showing up in suggestions linked to every party except Die Linke and FDP. Roughly 8% of suggestions contained coded language or "dog whistles" tied to right-wing narratives. The researchers note that 67% of young German TikTok users aged 18-24 regularly use the search function, making them a significant audience for these suggestions.
The report concludes that TikTok's search-suggestion algorithm may steer young users toward extremist political content, and the findings were later cited by the European Commission in relation to election-interference concerns.
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