Li Liang, vice-president of ByteDance’s Douyin unit, has rejected the notion that the company’s content-recommendation algorithms create filter bubbles.

Li described Douyin, the Chinese counterpart to TikTok, as an app that seeks to provide a wide range of content to encourage long-term user engagement.

He said that the design of Douyin is intended to expose users to diverse content, which he argued benefits user retention over time.

According to Li, Douyin’s recommendation system combines various algorithms and collaborative filtering methods to customize content for each user.

He mentioned that ByteDance’s algorithms have faced global scrutiny, particularly over concerns related to filter bubbles and limited content exposure.

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