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by analyst74 1154 days ago
That's completely untrue. I can't say if the algorithm is the same. In my short experience of using Douyin for the past couple weeks, I get zero education content, but a surprising amount of content about inequality and injustices.
3 comments

> but a surprising amount of content about inequality and injustices

Is it inequality and injustice. where pointing it out. would actually threaten the power of the CCP?

When I started reading Chinese language media I was surprised how much apparent criticism there is -- but if you read carefully, anything approved in the PRC is always criticism of individuals, or maybe corporations, more rarely a local government, doing something that's already supposed to be officially prohibited, or which is not too sensitive, and never criticizes core official policy or high-ranking CCP members.

Which is how you can have anti-corruption, anti-sex scandal, anti-pollution news commentary, or even protests and marches, in China. But should official permission to disagree be withdrawn, the topic can very quickly become taboo. A couple years ago there was ongoing discussion in Chinese media about same-sex marriage and a member of the Yuan even introduced a bill to make same-sex marriage legal in China. Voted down. But an acceptable topic to discuss, not officially taboo. I suspect that has changed recently, with the campaign against the apparent feminization of Chinese men and now explicitly linking LGBT rights with the Western agenda. That shift, as I understand it, comes directly from Xi.

Devil's advocate: you'd need to be in both countries on different device IDs. If you go US -> visit to China, their algorithm "knows" this as opposed to "you are in China and have never been to US before". Just a guess.
Ah, yes, your anecdata is proof.

Not that OP's claims are proof - but your anecdata does not disprove it.