Adam Aleksic has somehow managed to make linguistics cool. His rapid-fire videos have attracted an audience of millions across the social media universe. A Harvard graduate with a linguistics degree, ...

Small businesses thrive on TikTok thanks to an algorithm that evaluates each video independently. User engagement (likes, comments, shares, saves), watch time and relevant content are more important ...

Democratic users were 7.5 percent more likely to get GOP-backed content than videos matching their own political views.

An exclusive excerpt from Every Screen On The Planet reveals how the social media app’s powerful recommendation engine was shaped by a bunch of ordinary, twentysomething curators—including a guy named ...

TikTok’s algorithm favors mental health content over many other topics, including politics, cats and Taylor Swift, according to a Washington Post analysis. At first, the mental health-related videos ...

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily. After years of bipartisan warnings about TikTok’s potential national security risks, ...

The White House has answered what had been one of the major outstanding questions regarding its pending deal to transfer TikTok’s US operations to a majority American ownership group: Under the ...

TikTok’s 2026 algorithm changes place greater emphasis on saves and shares over likes, raise the completion rate threshold for virality to 70%, and reward longer videos that sustain attention. The ...

The EU is threatening to take action against the social media company. It could be the start of a global reckoning. Katie is a UK-based news reporter and features writer. Officially, she is CNET's ...

The story of TikTok has always been complicated by its ownership. When its predecessor, lip-syncing app Musical.ly, broke through with children and teenagers in 2016, the New York Times noted it’s ...

In just a few years, TikTok has gone from a niche lip-syncing app to one of the most powerful social media platforms in the world. From viral dance routines to comedic skits, food hacks, and global ...