  TikTok, a popular short video sharing application, emerged as the dominant
social media platform for young people, with a pronounced influence on how
young women and people of color interact online. The application has become a
global space for youth to connect with each other, offering not only
entertainment but also opportunities to engage with artificial
intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML)-driven recommendations and create content
using AI/M-powered tools, such as generative AI filters. This provides
opportunities for youth to explore and question the inner workings of these
systems, their implications, and even use them to advocate for causes they are
passionate about. We present different perspectives on how youth may learn in
personally meaningful ways when engaging with TikTok. We discuss how youth
investigate how TikTok works (considering data and algorithms), take into
account issues of ethics and algorithmic justice and use their understanding of
the platform to advocate for change.
