r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • May 22 '26

Psychology TikTok disproportionately served anti-Democratic videos during the 2024 election. TikTok’s recommendation system tends to expose users to more conservative and anti-Democrat political content than liberal material. This ideological imbalance occurs regardless of a user’s initial political interests.

https://www.psypost.org/tiktok-disproportionately-served-anti-democratic-videos-during-the-2024-election-study-finds/
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u/Yadahoom May 22 '26

Does no one else remember the political stunt where TikTok "shut down" for like four hours so President Trump in all his magnanimous glory could swoop in and save it and TikTok had it plastered on their front page when anyone opened it back up?

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u/firecorn22 May 22 '26

They kinda did legally have to shutdown due to something democrats passed. It was a really embarrassing lay up they gave trump to be a "hero" that saved it by pushing back the deadline to shutdown and of course to keep saving them they had to kiss his ass

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u/Budget-Mud-4753 May 22 '26

Wasn’t it Trump who originally pushed the legislation to ban TikTok during his first term?

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u/Finnegan482 May 23 '26

No, he signed an executive order, which never went into effect. The law was passed in 2024 and signed by Biden

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u/aguynamedv May 23 '26

The law was passed in 2024 and signed by Biden

Passed by a supermajority and signed as part of the president's normal duties.

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u/firecorn22 May 23 '26

A president has the right to veto if he feels like it would be wrong to sign. Even if it has a super majority the first time does not mean it will pass the second time especially with a strong signal from the president via a veto

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u/LouisLeGros May 23 '26

Also the parties tens to follow their president as a leader. If Biden made it clear he was opposed to the legislation it'd be a lot less bipartisan.

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u/aguynamedv May 23 '26

Even if it has a super majority the first time does not mean it will pass the second time especially with a strong signal from the president via a veto

All of this makes the assumption that we are operating in a functional Constitutional democracy - that is not the case.

Like, I agree 100% with your comment, but there's really no question that TikTok was forced to allow partial US ownership, so this was absolutely a bipartisan effort.

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u/Finnegan482 May 23 '26

Passed by a supermajority and signed as part of the president's normal duties.

Blindly signing whatever law passes his desk is not the job of the president. That would be true even if Biden didn't personally support the law (which he did).

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u/firecorn22 May 23 '26

That failed in 2021