‘Did I get the blue comment?’: How TikTok activists are leveraging an unexpected platform feature

You only meant to watch a video of an influencer sharing a funny story, but a puzzling collection of comments sent you down a news rabbit hole — a single exactly where you incidentally discovered about the starving youngsters of Northern Gaza. The comments on an Usher dance video unexpectedly got you fired up to decry the systemic bombing of a Palestinian refugee camp. Influencer clips about pregnancy quickly necessitate stick to-ups in which these exact same posters speak out about the harsh reality of pregnant females in Gaza.

That is the version of TikTok that on line activists, particularly these associating with a movement identified as Operation Watermelon, are attempting to generate with the enable of the platform’s algorithm-primarily based blue comments.

TikTok was seemingly not constructed with activism in thoughts, regardless of its present invocation as the digital voice of the revolution. Following its Musical.ly origins, ByteDance re-envisioned the app as a trendsetter and revenue-maker — a renaissance app for customers of all ages (entertainment behemoth, trend curator, and new age Google). In its efforts, TikTok’s algorithm has come to be a character of its personal. As each the app’s Major Evil but also the purveyor of taste, even celebrities and politicians have produced their concerns with the algorithm identified.

But as TikTok adds far more and far more customizable attributes intended to hold customers glued to the app, these exact same customers are becoming far more savvy about the algorithm’s techniques — like how to co-opt them for their personal implies. 

Turning TikTok comments into Search engine optimisation hubs 

It all began out innocuously. Timed with the initial launch of recommended searches, and quietly introduced in 2022, TikTok rolled out blue, clickable highlights to distinct search phrases or phrases inside user comments. These keyword ideas take the user to a web page of connected videos that match the highlighted search term. A wide variety of blue comments may possibly also trigger a far more basic recommended search term at the prime of a comment section. As its expanded, the function has been advertised as an enhancement of the app’s search capabilities and an extension of the company’s efforts to be Gen Z’s go-to search engine.

Just, recommended searches are just a new kind of algorithmic recommendation. In a comment to Small business Insider, a TikTok spokesperson explained the searches are not human-influenced, and that they are sorted by user relevance and engagement. “To make suggestions, the business utilizes artificial intelligence to recognize conversations about a video, such as by scanning user comments or hunting at what other men and women kind into the search bar right after watching a video. The search final results reflect what customers are saying about the TikTok video,” the publication reported. 

The function was, of course, swiftly noticed by TikTok marketing strategists and creator recommendations accounts. 

1, identified as @jera.bean or “Jera Bean TikTok Specialist”, spotted comment searchability for celebrity names and swiftly theorized it would begin applying to far more phrases and search phrases — she was proved appropriate quickly right after. An additional TikTok strategist, @LikeLaurenTaylor (“Lauren Taylor, TikTok Development”), drew follower interest to TikTok’s video-distinct search bar and “hyperlinks” as the new foundation for TikTok Search engine optimisation methods, claiming it could improve discoverability for brands. 

A June 2022 weblog from Sprout Social known as TikTok’s comment sections the “most effective portion of the app” or the “playground for online lore, themed threads, and belly laugh-evoking jokes.” According to the weblog, the most significant target for a brand (or influencer) is to create “comment-generated attain,” and that is completed by feeding into what the algorithm likes: hugely engaged comment sections with tons of likes per comment. To acquire the prime-liked comment is to hit TikTok gold. 

But the blue comment algorithm — which began with seemingly random assignments of blue hyperlinks — evolved, and customers quickly identified that they could influence what shows up as a recommended search by means of the strategic use of particular phrases or search phrases in comments. It did not take lengthy for customers to transform this into an interest-grabbing exploit, turning recommended searches into cogs in the app’s rumor mill. Months right after launch, customers started gaming the program to get their least liked creators trending, making use of blue comments to recommend the account was the center of an unnamed controversy. As awareness of the function and its quirks grew, creators applied it to improve viewer curiosity, posting videos replying to their preceding posts with captions like “Why did TikTok make that the recommended search?!” in order to draw interest back to their original post. 

Even now you are going to nevertheless see customers attempting to pull interest to their comments by “stealing” the blue search term. “Did I get the blue comment?” customers will ask, an evolution of the “initially comment” or “initially like” game. And, substantially like “1st!” comments, they are typically profitable, populating the recommended search and claiming prime true estate at the prime of the comment section. But even if they are unsuccessful, the query itself — and the obsession with blue comment baiting — is sufficient to garner the likes and replies required to redirect the spotlight anyway. 

The automatic recommended searches have also been criticized, and treated as a microcosm for TikTok’s broader media literacy challenge. Customers flocked to the web-site final year to get in touch with out the algorithm’s problematic lack of moderation for blue comments, permitting for the spread of tabloid-like drama and misinformation. Celebrities like Ariana Grande and Bebe Rexha have been the target of blue search ideas focused on the size of their bodies, although renowned TikTok couples fall victim to breakup rumors. LGBTQ influencers and creators of colour have had to navigate an completely new type of targeted hate. 

Customers can report recommended searches for possible removal — and the platform sometimes turns off the function completely for particular videos — but the apparent hands-off strategy leaves most search curation in the hands of customers themselves, for much better or for worse. 

Blue comments as the new protest sigil 

With its ingrained connection to virality, engagement, and branding, recommended comment searches are now portion of the bedrock of platform usability. Customers try to analysis the brand name of a well known designer handbag, exactly where to snag a trending meals item, or obtain out far more about a creator’s political stances, for instance, by way of blue comments. And if the blue comments do not lead them to the information and facts they seek, lots of seem eager to abandon the mission. 

On a video of a lady sharing her uncommon overall health circumstances, customers attempt to obtain out far more making use of blue comments.
Credit: TikTok screengrab / @Warrenit4Love 

A video sharing the history of iPhones shows men and women in the comments attempting to search distinct models and accessories.
Credit: TikTok screengrab / @isheep_pro

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But more than the final couple of months, blue comments have also come to be a substantial portion of a social justice organizing tactic. They are a deceptively easy way to use an influencer’s currently established platform, and their priority inside the app’s algorithm, to get about shadowbans, raise awareness, and, hopefully, push the creator into speaking out about concerns. As a single of the internet’s preferred hubs for pro-Palestinian sentiment gathering, it really is now getting applied to get in touch with interest to mass violence and humanitarian crises in Gaza. 

The tactic, stated by TikTok’s participants, is easy: 

1. Target an influencer that has stayed silent on the crisis.

2. Flood the comment section in order to generate a wave of blue, linked comments that will also transform the recommended search bar to a Gaza-related term.

3. Enhance engagement on the video and use the now-viral video to educate the influencer’s followers by way of comments.

The most prevalent way this is achieved is by nestling the calls for interest inside standard hunting comments or eye-grabbing sentiments. Throughout coverage of the 2024 Super Bowl halftime show, comments like “Bisan and Motaz would completely crush this!!!” and “Usher should’ve had Motaz or Bisan as guest performer” attempted to draw eyes back to the accounts of Palestinian citizen journalists Bisan Owda and Motaz Azaiza.” Other people flooded videos with “All eyes on Rafah.” The repeated comments led to several recommended searches of “Bisan and Motaz NFL” across videos. Blue comments have given that been removed from the videos. 

Credit: TikTok screengrab / @NFL

Credit: TikTok screengrab / @NFL

These comments are not just a trend, but an official TikTok movement organically coined “Operation Watermelon,” a riff on names of grassroots pro-Palestinian movements like Operation Olive Branch (not to be confused with the Turkish military operation of the exact same name). Operation Olive Branch’s goal is to amplify the voices of Palestinian creators, activists, and households on the ground, led by a network of grassroots volunteers attempting to connect households with help. Operation Watermelon, meanwhile, is much less officially organized, with a couple of creators constantly swapping leadership. 

The original organizer is user @Angie__Mariie, who asked her followers to flood comments with watermelon emojis and known as the work “Operation Flip the Rhythm.” Angie has given that left the app, passing along Operation Watermelon’s reins to user @TooMeanToBean, identified for videos on revolutionary organizing and political activism. Targets seem to take place organically, with comments from just a couple of customers snowballing into whole comment section takeovers. 

Ahead of the primetime broadcast of the Academy Awards ceremony, @TooMeanToBean and Operation Watermelon organizers flooded the comment sections of the official Oscars, Entertainment Tonight, and Vogue profiles with mentions of Yazan al-Kafarna, a ten-year-old Palestinian boy who died from malnourishment through the ongoing famine in North Gaza. “1st! Yazan Kafarnah deserved much better ❤” wrote a single user. 

Credit: TikTok screengrab / @EntertainmentTonight

Credit: TikTok screengrab / @Oscars

Efforts like these do in some cases have a direct effect on well known influencers. Following Operation Watermelon comments flooding her profile, well known labor and delivery nurse Jen Hamilton posted a video ruminating on her personal ignorance about lost Palestinian lives. 

“Yesterday I began finding comments about issues I had in no way heard prior to,” Hamilton stated to camera in a Jan. 22 post. “Issues like ‘Did you know that females in Gaza are obtaining C-Sections with out anesthesia? Did you know that the miscarriage price has gone up 300 %?’ These are all issues that I care deeply about, and no. I did not know that. I did not know why there had been watermelons in my comment section. These days was the incredibly initially day, moment, time, that I intentionally looked at what is taking place.”

Other efforts have spammed comment sections of important accounts like Alix Earle, MrBeast, Dixie D’Amelio, and Hank Green — a group with a cumulative 161 million followers. In March, well known TikTok creator Elyse Meyers officially departed the platform following an announcement that she was taking time to concentrate on the overall health of a single of her youngsters. Customers, nonetheless, felt it was in response to her getting a current target of Operation Watermelon, following months of her personal followers attempting to get the creator to speak out for the bring about. 

When Hamilton’s video was celebrated by lots of as a victory for the bring about, it would be a stretch to get in touch with an occasion like Meyers’ departure a resounding results — in particular with Meyers’ loyal fan base calling the blue comments and subsequent stitches directed at Meyers a type of on line harassment. Some organizers in Palestinian liberation spaces questioned how targets had been decided, or wondered why commenters did not also direct interest to political targets, like the not too long ago designed TikTok account for President Joe Biden. Other people view Operation Watermelon as the “schoolyard bullies” of TikTok, asking why the bring about does not just share “thoughts and prayers” for these impacted. 

In a current case, Operation Watermelon targeted life-style influencer Abbie Herbert, a creator with far more than 15 million followers. In the get in touch with to action, organizers asked customers to flood her comments with mentions of al-Kafarna when once again, which correctly got the interest of the well known creator. But stick to-up posts accused Herbert of deleting Operation Watermelon comments and silencing the calls to action. A clarification was posted by @TooMeantoBean shortly right after, alleging that TikTok was basically removing the comments for “bullying and harassment.” TikTok’s automatic cyberbullying warning has appeared on other videos filled with Operation Watermelon comments, as nicely. 

The blue comment tactic is clearly churning up the TikTok waters, which is one thing disruptive political organizing aims to do. And Operation Watermelon’s troubles, although thorny, reflect the deeper troubles facing digital organizing at substantial. How can organizers and supporters generate centralized, thoughtful movements in inherently impersonal spaces? How can they do so correctly and with nuance, with out facilitating trolls or wider backlash? 

TikTok organizers deal with an added digital query: Ought to you hedge your movement’s bets on an algorithm that arguably operates against you by maintaining customers glued to screens and out of the streets?

As TikTok continues evolving, so also do creators, brands, and, now, social movements who use the platform to make a living, garner interest, and try to make tangible transform. Blue comments may possibly be a timely symbol for failed digital organizing — or they may possibly be just the starting.