A study published in Nature reports that TikTok’s recommendation system steers users toward Republican-aligned political content during the run-up to the 2024 US presidential election. Researchers used hundreds of automated “bot” accounts that were designed to mimic real user behavior. Each set of accounts was conditioned by repeatedly watching politically aligned videos—either Democratic-leaning or Republican-leaning—before researchers tracked what TikTok recommended to those accounts on the platform’s “For You” feed. The study finds a systematic skew toward Republican-aligned content. The Guardian reports the effect was observed in specific states—New York, Texas and Georgia—during the period leading up to the election. Another Nature report on the same issue describes asymmetric partisan exposure, noting that Republican-leaning accounts receive more aligned content and that Democratic-leaning accounts also receive cross-partisan recommendations rather than equal treatment. Phys.org summarizes the same finding that TikTok does not treat Democrats and Republicans equally in its recommendations. The findings are based on controlled audits rather than user surveys, and they focus on the content recommended on the For You feed.