While TikTok to date has been an app where you could largely expect never to run into annoying uncles, ex-boyfriends, or coworkers, the platform is now making a greater effort to connect users to people they already have relationships with outside the platform. Eight TikTok users told WIRED that, over the past few months, the app has begun encouraging them to follow people from real life. It’s also become a common complaint among the TikTok faithful more broadly, raising privacy concerns about the tactics the app uses to establish who they know in the first place.

Matsakis, L. (2021, November 12). The sneaky way TikTok is connecting you to real-life friends. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-friends-contacts-people-you-may-know/