"TikTok restricts data tool after accusations of geopolitical bias", 9 January 2024

Following criticism around content related to the war in Gaza, TikTok has restricted a tool that assesses popularity of trends on the app, the New York Times reports.

Called the Creative Center, the platform helps advertisers see the most popular hashtags on the site, though it's available to anyone to look at. Critics of the tool — namely researchers and lawmakers, according to the NYT — said that TikTok wasn't adequately moderating content on the app. Now, the Creative Center's search function and links for hashtags within the platform relating to the war in Gaza and other political events have reportedly stopped working.

Alex Haurek, a spokesman for TikTok's parent company Bytedance, told the NYT that some individuals used the Creative Center tool to "draw inaccurate conclusions."

The Chinese-owned app has also been accused of being influenced by Beijing; The Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University said in a report that geopolitical topics suppressed within Beijing were underrepresented on TikTok compared to Instagram. In response, TikTok said that the report used "a flawed methodology to reach a predetermined, false conclusion."

Mashable has reached out to TikTok for comment.