TikTok closed access to monitoring the popularity of hashtags. This tool was one of the few publicly available methods of tracking activity on the platform.
A tool called Creative Center, created in 2020, was available to everyone and could provide numbers about the number of videos tied to a certain hashtag and information about the audience that watched those videos. This allowed advertisers to track popular hashtags on the site and researchers to analyze how TikTok moderates content on the platform. However, Creative Center has recently become unavailable.
The change was first noticed by the Network Contagion Research Institute, which tracks misinformation and extremism online. Experts used this tool to create a report submitted last month. It said that TikTok had significantly less content than other social networks on topics that could be sensitive to the Chinese authorities (genocide of the Uyghur population, protests in Hong Kong, etc.). The researchers noticed the absence of the tool while analyzing the US videos. Hashtags they were studying (#BLM, #Trump2024, #Biden, etc.) were no longer available and the Search button disappeared. There were no announcements about this from TikTok.
“Anything that is politically sensitive or could be politically sensitive or explosive is gone, and with everything that is pop culture, no problem. It's really surprising to me that they didn't announce it or say anything about it,” institute founder Joel Finkelstein told The New York Times.
TikTok said in response to the researchers' report that the “methodology was flawed to reach a predetermined false conclusion.”. The company also confirmed that access to the Creative Center was restricted. Now, according to TikTok, the tool is focused on sharing data on the top 100 hashtags in different areas, such as pets or travel.
“Unfortunately, some individuals and organizations have misused Center's search functionality to draw inaccurate conclusions, so we are changing some features to ensure that they are used as intended,” said Alex Gaurek, a company spokesperson.