The major social media's algorithms control the content that the user sees in their feeds.
They read the user's behavior and deliver content that they are deemed interested in.
One way to make the hidden structures visible is to test them.
Tiktok's algorithm calculates what it should suggest for clips next by following the user's so-called "watch time", i.e. how long you stay on a clip before you swipe on to the next one.
That's why SVT's Document from the inside: The price we pay created a test.
They started a brand new account, and the only information provided was that the user is an 18-year-old girl who lives in Stockholm.
“A completely different flow”
The fictional user stopped at clips about make-up, hair styling and beauty procedures.
A clip could not be viewed more than twice.
After about 20 minutes of scrolling, more than every third clip was about fillers, botox or cosmetic surgery.
- Just by stopping at certain clips, we've got a completely different flow than when we started, says documentary maker Frida Söderlund.
The test was repeated several times with similar results.
See how the flow in Tiktok changes in the first half hour in the clip above.
All three episodes of Document from the inside: The price we pay are now available on SVT Play.
