TikTok is deciding who wins and who loses: creators and businesses may lose a space on someone's For You page to someone with a closer relationship with the corporation. This is how TikTok decides what goes viral.
According to Forbes, TikTok workers in the United States have the option to promote videos in order to "introduce celebrities and emerging creators to the TikTok community." The assertion is part of an article regarding TikTok's "Heating" button, which Forbes claims can be used to place selected movies on users' For You pages, increasing views by avoiding the algorithm that supposedly governs the TikTok experience.
According to Jamie Favazza, a TikTok spokesperson, increasing views to certain videos is not the primary reason for heating. He also stated that TikTok will "promote some videos to help diversify the content experience" (read: make sure your feed is not completely made up of one or two trends). Favazza further claims that TikTok does not do it very often...