TikTok in Taiwan

30-second overview: TikTok is not merely a short-video platform that makes people famous — in Taiwan, it is a decentralized cognitive experiment. Through hyper-personalized recommendations, it leads users to unconsciously internalize others' political agendas as their own worldview. A 2025 survey found that over 70% of Taiwanese teenagers aged 15 to 18 spend more than 2 hours daily on TikTok, and their favorable views toward China are quietly rising with every scroll — while their negative perceptions of Taiwanese society deepen simultaneously.

15 seconds — that is the time TikTok needs to capture a Taiwanese soul. The moment you swipe open the screen, the algorithm begins calculating in milliseconds your pupil dwell time, your clicks, and your preference for certain rhythms. This is not pure entertainment; it is a predatory battle over Taiwan's attention and identity.

From Musical.ly to Global Dominance: The Algorithm's Victory and Taiwan's Challenge

TikTok's story began in 2016, when China's ByteDance launched "Douyin." In 2017, ByteDance acquired Musical.ly — hugely popular among American teenagers — for USD 1 billion, and integrated it with Douyin's international version into TikTok. This merger was not merely market expansion; it was an evolution of the algorithm, enabling it to precisely capture the preferences of users worldwide.⁵

Unlike Facebook or Instagram, TikTok's core competitive advantage lies in its "For You Page" (FYP). It does not depend on your social connections — it depends on your behavior. It knows your desires better than you do, and pushes the next video to your screen before you even realize what you like. In Taiwan, this highly personalized recommendation mechanism allows specific information to rapidly and covertly permeate users' daily lives.

📝 Curator's note: TikTok's success is not because it creates content — it is because it knows your desires better than you do, and even knows Taiwan society's vulnerabilities better than you do.

National Security Risks and Privacy Concerns: Taiwan's Digital Sovereignty Crisis

TikTok's national security risks and privacy concerns have consistently been a focal point for Taiwan's government and society. Many countries worry that TikTok is believed to transmit user data to Chinese servers, potentially becoming a tool for the CCP to manipulate public opinion and divide Taiwanese society.¹⁴ The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) once warned that TikTok could become a tool for influencing public opinion when China invades Taiwan.¹⁴ An investigation by the European Commission in 2023 confirmed risks in TikTok's data storage and transmission, leading to its prohibition on multiple official devices.¹⁵

In Taiwan, although the Executive Yuan has explicitly prohibited TikTok on government devices, civilian usage rates remain extremely high. Cybersecurity experts point out that merely having the Executive Yuan ban it is far from sufficient, because TikTok can comply with Chinese government demands at any time — transforming from a video platform into a propaganda weapon — posing a substantive threat to Taiwan's digital sovereignty.¹⁴²²

Dangerous Challenges and Youth Mental Health: The Digital Trap for Taiwanese Teenagers

In the chase for traffic, TikTok has spawned countless "viral challenges." These challenges, however, often come with deadly risks. Between 2022 and 2023, the "Blackout Challenge" broke out across multiple locations worldwide, in which participants were encouraged to use ropes or belts to choke themselves until losing consciousness. This challenge resulted in the deaths of at least 15 children.⁴

In Taiwan, teenagers have also followed "wound challenge" or "raw instant noodle challenge" and other dangerous behaviors. Behind these behaviors lies intense peer pressure and a craving for traffic. When the algorithm discovers that a certain type of dangerous video generates extremely high engagement, it involuntarily amplifies its recommendation — forming a vicious cycle of "the more dangerous, the more popular." Additionally, the algorithm's immersive influence on teenagers has also led parents to worry about its long-term impact on youth mental and physical health, such as effects on values and declining academic concentration.¹⁶²³

The Invisible Cognitive War: Content Moderation and "Destroying Taiwan's Confidence"

The most controversial aspect of TikTok in Taiwan is undoubtedly its role as a "cognitive warfare" tool. During Taiwan's 2024 presidential election, TikTok was flooded with videos accusing the Central Election Commission of "election fraud." Posts by influencers such as Alizabeth (愛莉莎莎) gained millions of views in a short time, triggering a serious crisis of democratic trust.² Taiwan's FactCheck Center noted that multiple recent politically motivated pieces of disinformation originated from TikTok videos — content often appropriating news footage paired with fabricated narration — further spreading to other social media platforms.²

Research by Watchout (沃草) indicates that TikTok's algorithm carries clear value preferences. Research by the U.S. "Network Contagion Research Institute" (NCRI) confirmed that searching sensitive terms like "Tiananmen" or "Xinjiang" on TikTok yields a far lower proportion of "anti-China" videos than YouTube or Instagram.¹³ Conversely, TikTok will heavily recommend content introducing Xinjiang's beautiful scenery, food, and other "unrelated" topics — using the "sea of content tactic" (影海戰術) to dilute users' attention to human rights issues.¹³

More alarmingly, platform content is alleged to align with the CCP's "main melody" narrative, deliberately concealing China's political realities, and being used to produce content targeting Taiwan for united front purposes, penetrating Taiwan's young demographic. This kind of united front work does not directly propagandize "China is great" — instead, it uses subtle and gradual means to make Taiwanese youth question their own society, government, and democratic system, eventually feeling that "Taiwan is terrible."¹⁷ This strategy of "destroying Taiwan's confidence" is more pervasive and harmful than direct political propaganda. Yang Shun-ching, head of the intelligence analysis team at the Taiwan Democracy Lab, has also shared multiple cases indicating that many rumors ahead of the 2024 presidential election originated from TikTok, demonstrating its enormous influence on Taiwan's information environment.²⁴

📝 Curator's note: The most successful brainwashing makes you think you are merely watching an interesting video — not being fed political thought — yet imperceptibly causes you to lose confidence in your homeland.

The Truth Behind the Data: Taiwan's Reshaped Identity

According to the 2025 TikTok/Douyin User Survey Report released by the Taiwan Democracy Lab (Doublethink Lab), active TikTok users have significantly higher favorable views toward China than non-users, and are more inclined to agree with the "doubt-America narrative" and to feel pessimistic about Taiwan's economic prospects.¹ This report, using a counterfactual analysis method, confirms that "active TikTok use" itself — at the causal level — influences Taiwanese people's political attitudes.³

Watchout further cites research showing that nearly half of people who use TikTok more than three hours a day have a relatively positive evaluation of human rights in China.¹² This "digital charm offensive" is quietly changing the identity of Taiwan's younger generation. Some data even shows that the strength of Taiwan identity among the 20-to-24 age group has begun to waver — they are no longer the age group with the strongest Taiwan identity, breaking a long-standing pattern.⁹ This indicates that TikTok has not only affected perceptions of China, but has also indirectly affected Taiwanese youth's identification with their own identity.

Taiwan's Challenge: The Tug-of-War Between National Security and Freedom of Speech

Currently, Taiwan's government only prohibits TikTok on Executive Yuan and affiliated agency devices, but civilian adoption rates remain extremely high. Despite multiple countries imposing bans on TikTok, if Taiwan were to impose a comprehensive ban, it would risk restricting freedom of speech; how to strike a balance between maintaining national security and protecting freedom of speech is the key challenge.¹⁸ This dispute between regulation and freedom of speech not only tests the government's wisdom, but also challenges civil society's media literacy capabilities. Cybersecurity experts are calling for Taiwan's government, which appears to be "behind the curve" in handling the TikTok issue, to adopt more proactive response strategies.¹⁴

In the short-video era, what we take away is not only knowledge — it is also a new way of seeing the world. As our fingers keep scrolling down, perhaps we should pause and ask: is this the world I chose to see, or the world that was chosen for me to see?

References and Notes