PLATFORM PR – THE PUBLIC MODERATION OF PLATFORM VALUES THROUGH TIKTOK FOR GOOD

Abstract

TikTok wants to “inspire creativity” and “spark joy,” Meta aims to “bring the world closer together,” and YouTube aspires to “give everyone a voice and show them to the world.” Platforms claim that they want to do $2 . However, they regularly get international attention for being $2 instead. Social media data scandals are a prominent point of research. Yet initiatives to counterbalance these backlashes, such as YouTube’s Black Voices Fund or TikTok for Good are rarely investigated. Although platform initiatives' content is often not on the top of your For You Page (FYP), such social initiatives can tell much about what values a platform aims to promote. Examining the values promoted through social initiatives of platform companies provides a way to understand what these companies try to center as important or worthwhile. This project investigates the promotion of platform values through “TikTok for Good,” based on an inductive and thematic analysis of TikTok for Good videos (n=180). With this study, I aim to explore how platform values can enhance our understanding of the construction of what a platform counts as $2 , what is worth being visible, and in turn, what is not.