The Covered 'Heating' Button on TikTok: How employees are rigging the system and creating viral videos

Discover the truth about TikTok's covert "heating" button, how it manipulates viral videos, and the algorithm's lack of transparency. On the short-video platform, this article calls for more fairness and transparency.

It has been discovered that the popular short-video platform TikTok has a hidden "heating" button that enables staff members to manually select videos for the platform's For You Page (FYP) to receive more views. Six current and former TikTok employees, as well as internal documents and communications, have revealed, according to a Forbes report, that some US employees secretly select videos to boost the FYP in a practice known as "heating."

In conclusion, TikTok has a secret "heating" button that lets employees manually select videos for the platform's For You Page to get more views. The use of this button raises questions about the algorithmic fairness and transparency of the platform as well as the possibility of conflicts of interest. To keep the platform fair and equitable for everyone, TikTok needs to be more open about its algorithms and how it uses the "heating" button.

The FYP is a very important part of the platform because it shows users curated videos from creators that they may not follow but the algorithm of TikTok thinks they might like based on how many times they've liked and interacted with them in the past. TikTok added a "Why This Video" panel to its recommended videos in December 2022 to explain to users why a particular piece of content appeared on their FYP.

Forbes was informed by TikTok spokesperson Jaime Favezza that there are a few reasons why they "heated" videos: to "promote some videos to help diversify the content experience," to introduce celebrities and emerging creators to the community, and to increase views.

The "heating" button could also be used to "push important information" and "promote relevant videos that were missed by the recommendations algorithms," according to internal documents. However, employees may promote videos from friends, partners, or even their own because they are reportedly left to their own devices to choose which videos they will promote.

Questions about the fairness and transparency of the platform's algorithms are sparked by the discovery of this covert "heating" button. Even though TikTok says that the button is used to "promote some videos to help diversify the content experience," it's clear that the feature is also being used to push some content, possibly at the expense of other creators.

Concerns about potential conflicts of interest are also raised by the fact that employees are said to be left alone to choose which videos to push. As a result, a lot of creators and users are pleading with TikTok to be more open about its algorithms and how it uses the "heating" button in order to keep the platform fair to everyone.