One of the world’s hottest startups, the social media app has faced plenty of corporate drama both inside and outside the company, according to interviews with more than a dozen current or former employees.
At the end of 2019, TikTok’s top executives decided to contend with a pressing question: With the U.S. presidential election fast approaching, what would they do with political content on their newly ascendent social media app? The concern prompted meetings and internal debates on the subject, some held in person, some virtually over the company’s proprietary Lark communications software. They considered whether they might, for instance, teach the app’s algorithm to identify a MAGA banner in a video as problematic content. But such adjustments could unfairly flag content not actually political in nature: Perhaps the MAGA sign was there, but the video was, in fact, a lip-sync clip and nothing more.
Political content on other social media sites had transformed those platforms into places for disinformation. And even if that didn’t happen on TikTok, the app would run the risk of becoming home for legitimate, if liberal, political discourse, angering Republicans, some of whom had already voiced concerns about the app. The group of executives considering the matter included Zhang Yiming, the billionaire head of TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, and the discussions went as far as to consider turning off TikTok’s algorithmic For You feed during the presidential election, a drastic action disabling the social network’s signature feature.
“TikTok was really trying to avoid having any political content,” says a person familiar with these internal discussions, which haven’t been previously reported. “They were trying to be a place for fun. They were like, ‘We’re an app for singing and dancing.’”
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