Prevailing Negative Communities Online: Algorithmic Influence and User Self-awareness

Abstract

In recent years, the proliferation of short videos imbued with negative sentiment on TikTok has elicited widespread societal attention. This paper investigates the dissemination of negative emotional content on the social media platform TikTok. Specifically, this paper analyzes user data from several short video platforms, including TikTok, and finds that users aged 18-35 constitute the primary audience for short video content. Amid the propagation of negative emotions, this paper proposes the research hypothesis of a negative community. It conducts an in-depth exploration of the following queries: 1) Is the algorithm of TikTok complicit in the spread of negative sentiment? 2) Has this dissemination cultivated unique cultural communication attributes, coalescing into a community-based audience? Moreover, 3) In forming and proliferating negative sentiment, which plays a more significant role the algorithm or the user.