Researchers will get access to TikTok data — pending company approval
Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge
TikTok will let researchers at US-based nonprofit universities access public data, the company announced today, following earlier rounds of testing with subject matter experts.
The platform’s API will allow academics and researchers to access “public, anonymized” data like user profiles and content like comments, likes, and favorites on videos and search results in order to better understand TikTok trends and user activity. The research API was first announced last summer, and members of an advisory council were given access to the API in November.
Now, a wider range of researchers will be able to study TikTok more closely, but access to the API is still controlled by the company. Research proposals require approval by TikTok’s US Data…
