Found a stat about TikTok's shadowbanning rates for political content that shocked me

I dug into the data from a Pew Research report last month and it showed that 62% of posts with certain political hashtags get suppressed within the first hour, which made me question how much of what I see is actually organic versus algorithm-controlled.

3 comments

3 Comments

alicer539d ago

Wow, 62% is way higher than I ever would have guessed, that's honestly kind of terrifying. I figured some stuff got buried but basically two out of three posts just vanishing in the first hour feels like the whole platform is rigged against certain views. It makes me wonder if we're all just seeing a heavily curated version of reality without even realizing it.

ward.anna9d ago

Doesn't it make you wonder how much of what we think is "popular opinion" is actually just whatever survived the first hour? Like, I've seen really thoughtful, well-sourced posts on niche topics get zero traction while something silly and low effort blows up. It feels like the algorithm is basically picking winners and losers before most people even get a chance to see the content. And that curated version you're talking about, it shapes what we argue about and what we assume everyone agrees on. It's not even about conspiracy, it's just how the system works.

danielr999d ago

Isn't that exactly what @ward.anna is getting at though? I feel like we're all just watching the same algorithm-chosen highlights while the real discussion is happening in some dark corner nobody can find.