TikTok
Your Attention is Our Product
$380B
Value Extracted
5
Key Initiatives
TikTok, the ByteDance-owned video platform, monetizes attention while controlling which creators earn. A January 2023 Forbes report exposed an internal "heating" tool that manually boosts roughly 1-2% of daily views, and TikTok shut its billion-dollar Creator Fund in December 2023. EnshitifAi assigns TikTok an Extraction Index of $380B, an editorial figure, not a financial measurement.
The Story
TikTok was accidentally making creators successful. We helped them understand that creator success should be manually allocated and revoked at will, keeping everyone desperate and dependent.
Common Questions
Is TikTok enshittified?
By EnshitifAi's reckoning, yes. A January 2023 Forbes report revealed an internal 'heating' tool, documented in TikTok's MINT Heating Playbook, that lets staff manually push selected videos to roughly 1-2% of all daily views, undermining the idea of organic reach. In December 2023 it shut down its billion-dollar Creator Fund, and a January 22, 2026 forced divestiture cut ByteDance to a 19.9% stake in the US business.
What dark patterns does TikTok use?
Opaque algorithmic favoritism through the 'heating' feature exposed in January 2023, where about 1-2% of daily views are manually allocated by a small team rather than earned. It also shifted creators from the old Creator Fund to the Creativity Program in December 2023, which only pays on videos over 60 seconds, plus shoppable videos that turn every clip into a potential infomercial. EnshitifAi treats these as textbook extraction levers.
Does TikTok actually pay creators fairly?
EnshitifAi's view is that payouts are engineered to stay precarious. TikTok closed its roughly $1-2 billion Creator Fund on December 16, 2023 in the US, UK, France and Germany, replacing it with the Creativity Program, which gates earnings behind a 60-second minimum video length and follower and view thresholds. Combined with manual 'heating' deciding who goes viral, creator success is allocated by the platform, not earned by the audience.
When did TikTok start enshittifying?
EnshitifAi dates the clearest evidence to January 2023, when Forbes published the 'heating' revelations, followed by the December 2023 Creator Fund shutdown. The pattern intensified with the January 22, 2026 US divestiture deal that valued TikTok's US business at about $14 billion and handed operational control to an Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX joint venture, with ByteDance retaining 19.9%.
Key Achievements
- 1
Built algorithm so addictive it required government intervention discussions
- 2
Created creator fund that pays less per view as more creators join
- 3
Designed 'heating' system to manually boost content, making organic reach meaningless
- 4
Implemented shopping features that turn every video into a potential infomercial
- 5
Perfected the art of making creators feel successful while extracting all the value
We don't have creators. We have content generation units.
Algorithm Team
Ministry of Engagement
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