TikTok research

Anonymous third-party paid political advertising in the Cyprus 2026 parliamentary elections

MedDMO researchers tracked ads naming Cyprus’s 753 registered candidates across Meta, Google and TikTok ad libraries/APIs and identified five anonymous third-party advertising operations totalling more than 450 political ads, including one spreading fabricated polling data days before the vote. Enforcement was weak and reactive: Meta removed less than 1% of flagged ads while still live and TikTok logged only one removal in 220 days, but after researchers escalated directly to the platforms and the European Commission, Meta removed 687 ads within 30 hours and TikTok removed 631 ads within five days.

Noise without effect: anti-Pashinyan disinformation ahead of Armenian elections

Monitoring ahead of Armenian elections found foreign manipulation targeting PM Pashinyan; French TikTok users searching his name saw mostly hostile, partly AI-generated content from Kremlin-, diaspora- and Azerbaijan-linked accounts.

Impact of regulation of children’s digital lives – Phase II

Researchers recorded 108 child-safety/privacy design changes across 70 platforms between 2024 and 2026, but only 5 of the platforms contacted directly responded to information requests. The four largest platforms (Meta, Google, TikTok, Snapchat) have shifted away from protective ‘by default’ design changes toward optional end-user tools such as parental controls, reversing the trend identified in the Phase I report.

Amplifying Antisemitism: How Recommender Algorithms Serve Harmful Content to Children

Using 10 simulated 15-year-old accounts (5,500+ videos), teens were exposed to antisemitic content within hours; TikTok pathways escalate from mainstream to neo-Nazi content while Rumble surfaced overt antisemitism from the outset.

Breaking the Loop: Exploring User Agency in Escaping Algorithmic Rabbit Holes on Social Media

Early-stage findings from a Panoptykon/Piotr Sapieżyński (Northeastern University) study testing whether Facebook's 'Not interested' feedback tool lets users actually escape unwanted recommended content; results are mixed, with one pilot showing no lasting effect and a later 7-participant study showing a 38% average reduction with wide variance.

Uneven Moderation by Language: Differences in DSA Content Removals in 2025

Companion study finding that content reported in smaller or minority EU languages was removed far less often (23.3%) than content reported in major languages (40.2%), pointing to language-based gaps in how platforms moderate under the DSA.

Uneven Moderation Across Platforms: Differences in DSA Content Removals in 2025

Of 13,187 posts and comments reported under the DSA across seven EU languages in 2025, 34.6% were removed overall, but action rates ranged from 71.3% on YouTube down to 12.5% on X, a roughly 5.7x disparity that evidences sharply uneven DSA enforcement between platforms.

Blacklight update: are TikTok and X tracking you across the internet?

The Markup expanded its Blacklight privacy inspector to detect TikTok and X tracking pixels on third-party websites, revealing how these platforms follow users across the web.

Brief for the Hearing at the European Parliament on DSA Enforcement and the Protection of Minors

Prepared for an EPP/Renew-organised European Parliament hearing, this brief matches TikTok, Meta and YouTube's self-declared minor-safety mitigation measures against independent research and finds none of the platforms disclose data substantiating that their measures actually work.

Assessment of Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference in the 2025 Czech Parliamentary Election

Found the 2025 Czech elections resilient: no evidence of coordinated, large-scale foreign interference capable of changing the outcome. Russian-linked actors focused on eroding trust via fraud narratives and content laundering (outlets like neČT24 and the Pravda network) across X, TikTok and Telegram rather than disrupting the vote itself.

TikTok unlawfully tracks your shopping habits – and your use of dating apps

A user discovered TikTok knew he had used the gay dating app Grindr and what he did there, data likely passed via AppsFlyer, an intermediary. TikTok also gave only an incomplete, hard-to-parse response to his GDPR access request across multiple attempts. noyb argues neither AppsFlyer nor Grindr had a valid legal basis under Article 6(1) or Article 9(1) GDPR to share this special-category data with TikTok.

Prompt, Upload, Repeat: Agentic AI Accounts Flood TikTok

Uncovered 354 'Agentic AI Accounts' responsible for the majority of AI slop on TikTok, together amassing 4.5B+ views and 43,000+ near-entirely AI-generated posts of misleading/harmful content.

Truth be Dammed: Climate Disinformation on YouTube and TikTok

With Maldita.es: dis/misinformation videos about Spain's Valencia (DANA) floods were amplified on both platforms and remained online a year later; YouTube lacks a dedicated policy and TikTok fails to enforce its own.

From FYP to WW3

During the 2025 NATO Summit, the For You Pages of 12 Dutch accounts prioritized military content (40%) and war speculation (19%); both feed and search reflected a largely pro-NATO stance.

For politicians, TikTok's algorithm is a handy bogeyman

Critiques a French parliamentary report on TikTok, arguing European politicians invoke platform algorithms as a scapegoat while sidestepping harder evidentiary and regulatory work.

Propagation of Pro-Russian Narratives on TikTok in Czechia

Hundreds of interconnected anonymous accounts with millions of views systematically spread pro-Kremlin propaganda and support anti-system parties on Czech TikTok.

Interfering from Exile – Ilan Shor’s Demonstrations in Moldova

Exposed coordinated inauthentic behaviour promoting a Telegram bot tied to fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor ahead of Moldova’s 2025 election: a network of ~117 amplifying accounts republished his content to evade EU sanctions, while the bot offered $3,000/month to protest and harvested passport, geolocation and facial data from participants.

Polish Election Country Report 2025

A 28-organisation assessment of FIMI during Poland’s 2025 presidential elections, finding persistent foreign operations (Doppelganger, Operation Overload) and domestic amplification of anti-Ukrainian, anti-EU and anti-establishment narratives, whose impact was constrained by public resilience and active civil-society responses.

AI Generated Algorithmic Virality (AI Slop)

Across three European countries, 25% of TikTok's top search results contained synthetic AI imagery (80%+ from 'Agentic AI Accounts'); only about half of AI content was properly labeled despite DSA commitments.

Operation Overload: an AI-fuelled escalation ('Overload 2')

The operation escalated using AI-generated content; Telegram is the central hub (673 channels) while ~11,000 X accounts amplify it. TikTok demoted accounts only after 3M+ views.

TikTok's Research API: Problems without Explanations

Missing metadata for official TikTok videos, ads, and prominent accounts makes the research API unreliable for data-donation studies and algorithmic auditing.

TikTok's Polish Elections Labels: Only Sometimes, And Only For Some

Systematic failures applying election-information labels during Poland's 2025 presidential election; 20M+ Polish diaspora users were excluded from labels while fraud allegations and AI disinformation spread unlabeled.

Far-right posts still pushed on TikTok ahead of Romanian election re-run

Ahead of the second-round re-run, TikTok's algorithm continued to push disproportionately more far-right content to new users.

TikTok algorithm recommends twice as much hard-right content ahead of Polish election

New accounts were served roughly twice as much hard-right content as other political content ahead of Poland's presidential election.

Report on the 45th Canadian General Election

Monitoring of Canada's April 2025 federal election found election-themed scam ads widespread on Meta and X, CCP-aligned narratives circulating on Chinese-language platforms, and TikTok's feed favouring US content despite majority-Canadian creators; the report calls for stronger researcher data access.

Recommending Hate: How TikTok's Search Algorithms Reproduce Societal Bias

After entering racist/misogynistic slurs, ~two-thirds of examined videos perpetuated harmful stereotypes; across four languages, search and recommendation algorithms connected users to content targeting marginalized groups.

X and TikTok algorithms push pro-AfD content to non-partisan German users

On TikTok, 78% of algorithmically recommended political content (from unfollowed accounts) was pro-AfD; on X, 64%, far exceeding the party's ~20% polling.

TikTok, AliExpress, SHEIN & Co surrender Europeans’ data to authoritarian China

Six complaints filed in five European countries allege TikTok, AliExpress, SHEIN, Temu, WeChat and Xiaomi unlawfully transfer EU users’ personal data to China, which lacks an EU adequacy decision. Four of the six openly admit transfers to China in their privacy policies; two only reference undisclosed ‘third countries.’ None adequately answered users’ Article 15 access requests.

The 2025 RDR Index: Big Tech Edition

Seventh edition (first full evaluation since 2022): no company scored over 50%; TikTok debuted strongly while X showed RDR's largest-ever single-company decline after cutting its human rights team and transparency reporting.

Rainbow-burning: how social media companies increase risks for LGBTQ+ people in Africa

Documented 214 threatening anti-LGBTQ+ posts across the platforms in five African countries; only 51 were removed when reported, blaming under-resourced moderation for African languages and engagement-driven algorithms.

TikTok pushes far-right candidate content in Romanian presidential election

Investigation into TikTok's algorithm around the first round won by ultranationalist Calin Georgescu; contributed to scrutiny that led the European Commission to open a DSA probe into TikTok.

TikTok (still) fails to detect disinformation ahead of Irish general election

Six months after the EU-election test, TikTok again approved election-disinformation ads (English and Irish) ahead of Ireland's snap general election.

TikTok and Facebook fail to detect harmful disinformation ads (US election)

Weeks before the US presidential election, TikTok approved 50% of disinformation ads and Facebook accepted one; YouTube approved 50% initially but blocked publication pending ID verification.

On a second attempt, TikTok and YouTube pass test to detect US election disinformation ads

In a follow-up test both platforms caught and rejected the resubmitted disinformation ads, showing improvement over the earlier failure.

US Election Platform Preparedness: Comparative Analysis

Assessed platforms across six areas ahead of the 2024 US election; the most alarming common finding was a pervasive lack of transparency about policies, safety efforts and resourcing.

TikTok and Anti-Migrant & Anti-Refugee Content

Of 104 analyzed videos, only 3.8% were removed; comments calling for harm to migrants persisted for months, and TikTok's search recommended deliberate misspellings that evaded moderation.

TikTok and White Supremacist Content

White supremacist content remained readily available; of 108 sampled videos, 70 were uploaded within the prior three months, and a network of neo-Nazi accounts amassed millions of views.

Public Data Access Programs: A First Look

First systematic evaluation of 19 platforms' researcher data-access programs; access varies widely and data quality is poor.

Digital Apartheid in Gaza: Unjust Content Moderation (2-part series)

Documents how platforms, especially Meta (reportedly ~94% compliance with Israeli Cyber Unit takedown requests), disproportionately removed pro-Palestinian content while failing to curb anti-Palestinian hate.

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.

Light on Safety: How TikTok Lite Sacrifices User Protections

With Mozilla: TikTok Lite (widely used in Global Majority countries) lacks content filtering, screen-management tools and harmful-content warnings, leaving 1B+ users exposed despite these being technically feasible.

The TikTok effect: how the app shaped political discourse in Finnish European elections

Faktabaari/CheckFirst CrossOver report uncovering worrying trends in TikTok's possible impact on the 2024 European elections in Finland.

TikTok and YouTube pass new test to detect foreign election disinformation ads in UK

Ahead of the UK general election, both platforms rejected a set of prohibited foreign-interference/disinformation ads, a rare pass that contrasts with failures elsewhere.

Confusing Google predictions and unbalanced politics on TikTok and Instagram

CrossOver Finland analysis found politically unbalanced content on TikTok and Instagram alongside confusing Google search predictions ahead of the 2024 elections.

Impact of regulation on children’s digital lives

Meta, Google, TikTok and Snap made 128 documented child-safety and privacy changes between 2017 and 2024, peaking at 42 changes in 2021 when the UK Age Appropriate Design Code took effect; Meta alone accounted for 61 of the changes. Only 8 of 50 companies contacted with information requests responded.

Ticked off: TikTok approves EU elections disinformation ads in Ireland

TikTok approved all 16 election-disinformation ads ahead of the EU parliamentary elections; X rejected all of them and YouTube rejected all but two.

Shrinking democracy, growing violence: Internet shutdowns in 2023

Annual #KeepItOn documentation of shutdowns and platform blocking worldwide in 2023, tying disruptions to elections, protests and conflict.

Full Disclosure: Stress Testing Tech Platforms' Ad Repositories

With CheckFirst: tested ad-transparency tools of 11 companies; none rated 'ready,' with major data gaps and inaccuracies.

Mozilla commissions CheckFirst to conduct a stress test of Ad Repositories

First comprehensive report on DSA-strengthened platform ad libraries, finding the ad transparency tools failing to meet their intended purpose.

Safe by Default (People vs Big Tech briefing)

Argues engagement-based recommender systems amplifying borderline content is a feature not a bug; calls on regulators to require non-profiling feeds as the default.

Platforms, Promises and Politics: a reality check on election pledges

Finds platforms' election interventions in the Global Majority are template-copied and far weaker than those offered in the US/EU.

TikTok removes views from hashtags

TikTok obscured hashtag view counts, reducing transparency for researchers studying harmful content.

Disinformation on TikTok: research and content moderation policies

Factsheet documenting how disinformation on TikTok is researched and how the platform's content-moderation policies operate.

Violent and sexualised hate speech targeting women journalists (South Africa)

Nearly all 40 misogynistic test ads (in 4 languages) were approved; Meta and TikTok approved all 40 within 24 hours. Concludes automated moderation is 'not fit for purpose.'

TikTok's Role in Youth Mental Health

With Amnesty International: a two-part audit found TikTok's recommendation system could rapidly lead young users toward content glorifying self-harm and suicide.

TikTok's Toxic Trade

Videos glorifying steroid-like drugs got 587M+ US views in three years, some linking directly to sellers.

Platforms' policies on climate change misinformation (V1)

Maps how the five platforms address climate misinformation, revealing uneven and weak climate-specific rules.

A world of online hate and lies: Mapping our investigations

A synthesis of 10+ country investigations concluding platforms systematically fail to enforce their own hate-speech/disinformation ad policies, with weaker moderation outside the US.

Platforms' policies on elections misinformation

Maps and compares how five major platforms address election misinformation in their policies.

Platforms' policies on health misinformation

Maps and compares how five major platforms address health misinformation in their policies.

'We need to kill them': Xenophobic hate speech approved by Facebook, TikTok and YouTube (South Africa)

Violent xenophobic test ads were approved by all three platforms; nearly every ad passed, with only one Facebook rejection.

Extreme and violent anti-LGBTQ+ hate approved for publication by leading social media platforms

Test ads with extreme anti-LGBTQ+ hate were almost all approved: YouTube and TikTok approved all 10 ads, Facebook rejected only two, and all three approved the 'burn all gays' ad.

What does TikTok know about you? Data donations deliver answers!

Launch of the DataSkop TikTok data-donation campaign, detailing TikTok's extensive data collection and the opacity of the 'For You' feed.

Pathways: How digital design puts children at risk

Using avatar (test) accounts posing as 13-year-olds, researchers found children were directly targeted with harmful content — including material promoting eating disorders, extreme diets, self-harm and suicide — within 24 hours of creating an account on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok. Child accounts also received contact from unknown adults directing them toward further harmful content.