What is 'TikTok Farlands', the underworld of the network hacked by users

What is 'TikTok Farlands', the underground network hacked by users
BBC/SERENITY STRULL/GETTY IMAGES
TikTok is known for offering an endless stream of videos that are generally reasonably positive. Some of its critics would call this stream smooth.
But beneath this surface, there are billions of other videos that the platform doesn't normally show.
Some of them are dull. Others are bizarre. And still others are really disturbing.
Some say that if you stay up too late, scrolling for hours until you run out of TikTok's normal recommendations, you might get a momentary glimpse of these videos. But the platform's users claim to have found a way to delve deeper into this type of content.
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With the right strategies, it is possible to reach this mysterious digital space, stranger, darker and grotesque than the happy path normally led by the platform's algorithm. It's known as the TikTok Farlands, the "distant lands" of TikTok.
Apparently, the best way to get there is to enter a set of random letters and numbers that another user has posted in the comments of a video.
"You can't get there with algorithm recommendations alone," explains internet culture reporter and meme researcher Aidan Walker, in a post on the subject. "You need a human to invite you in."
Discussions about TikTok Farlands have developed over the past few months. They mix conspiracy theories, urban legends and serious discussions about the power of the companies that run social media.
Users have found ways to take control of TikTok's algorithm to surface videos they believe the app doesn't want them to see.
This is a social movement, more than a trend or meme. People are attacking the walls of the machine.
In a world of AI slop (sloppy content, created by artificial intelligence) and meaningless scrolling, this phenomenon has made me more optimistic about the future of the internet, something I haven't felt in a long time.
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Going down the rabbit hole
The name Farlands comes from an old technical error in the game Minecraft.
In early versions of the game, if you walked long enough, an error would create distorted and chaotic scenarios, full of tunnels and strange structures.
"Minecraft's Farlands were the extreme end of the game. You literally reached the end of the world and couldn't go any further", explains communications studies professor Jessica Maddox, from the University of Georgia, in the United States. His focus of study is social networks.
TikTok Farlands follows the same idea. "It's the end of the internet, where everything gets weird. You go off the beaten path and take a wrong turn."
With the help of the comments on Walker's video post, I was able to follow some random character sets and jump into the void. I entered a code into the search bar and found something completely different from my usual TikTok experience. Terrifying AI-generated figures paraded across the screen. Faces contorted in a haze of pixelated distortion. Some kind of alien creature with its veins connected to the wires of a TV screamed in agony, while a teenager watched with a video game controller. Much of this material was too disturbing for the BBC to provide a link. And I recommend a little caution before making any observations.
Visitors to Farlands take control of TikTok's algorithm, to promote videos that the app would not normally promote
Shane Moore/Lucas Wilm/Mason T.
The very sets of random letters and numbers that people share as passwords for Farlands are shrouded in mystery.
In some cases, users tag their own videos with these codes and share them to promote their work. But I've talked to a few people who swear they've found Farlands codes by trial and error and pounding the keyboard. Some of the codes seem to give truly random results. It's difficult to analyze what's really going on, as TikTok's search function provides different results for different users.
The idea itself is to deliberately subvert TikTok to achieve our own goals, according to Walker.
"That's part of the excitement," she says. "You use the platform differently than it was intended to be used."
"You go beyond the limits of normal TikTok, beyond the border where no one really knows what's going on."
In the comments of these strange videos, you can find people repeatedly writing, in large blocks, "I WANT TO STAY IN THE FARLANDS." And some visitors seem to believe that posting a 500-word comment triggers the algorithm to show similar content.
Is this true? Impossible to say. Social media algorithms are a black box. I reached out to TikTok but didn't receive a response.
"People are trying to regain control of their feeds and their experiences on the internet," explains Maddox.
"It's a reflection of our fatigue with algorithm-generated feeds and our anxiety about the force they exert over our lives, determining what we observe."
"The internet is overwhelming. In some ways, the Farlands represent the hope that you have indeed found the end, coming to a place where you can really stop."
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Following the trend
This whole discussion about the "end of the internet" is a bit paradoxical.
The goal of "entering" the Farlands is to discover hard-to-find videos. Some are genuinely weird, created by people who don't understand or care about social media norms. Others are intentionally edgy or artistic.
But some of these supposedly "dark" posts on the Farlands have millions of views. And its popularity has increased, leading certain users to make new videos to adapt to this trend.
Finding this material is easier: just type "Farlands". But users claim that these videos are not authentic.
Real Farlands videos have no titles, no tags and "certainly do not have the Farlands hashtag", as one user commented on a popular video.
A real Farlands video, according to experts on the subject, will only have 30 views and will come from an account with no followers, which can only be found by people determined to go in search of it.
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'Kind of scary, kind of bizarre'
TikTok Farlands are a relatively new phenomenon. But there are many old memes, ideas, aesthetics and videos there.
Some of this content brings back metaphors from the era of creepypastas, a genre of ghost stories from the beginning of the modern internet.
Many videos share the aesthetic of deep fried memes, with images that go through different filters until they become pixelated and worn out.
This trend dates back to at least 2015. And users discussed the hidden side of TikTok in 2019 and 2020, when they explored the so-called Deeptok.
"It really looks like a hodgepodge of different materials from the entire history of the internet", according to Walker. "It's niche, kind of scary, kind of bizarre."
Still, there's something different here. For starters, much of the popular content that people describe as Farlands looks more like commentary on technology and social media itself.
The posts from Shane Moore, better known as @smoorel8r, begin with the typical TikTok food reviews, until the image degrades as if it were a corrupted video file, with scenes that look like horror movies fading in and out.
Others, like @realityisoptional.net and Lucas Wilm, produce videos that look less like networks. social media and more with the art videos we find in museums. Several content creators have told me that they were already doing this style of content before the Farlands started being talked about.
I ask Aidan Walker if coverage of the Farlands by a mainstream press like the BBC might make it seem less appealing.
"It's already mainstream," he responds. "It's a big part of some people's media consumption." In other words, the most interesting creators are probably long gone.
But there's a sense in the discourse around Farlands that something subversive is going on, especially as people are finding ways to manipulate the algorithms. If anything makes you spend more time on TikTok, the result will be exactly what the platform wants.
In any case, Farlands are part of a larger trend.
People have been ditching their smartphones for "dumb phones" for years. Analog cameras and wired headphones are back. The negative reaction to AI is so popular that even the pope is talking about it.
Generally, there is a feeling that a technological rebellion is emerging in our society.
It may just be a brief and interesting historical detour. Or it could be a sign of something to come.
Thomas Germain is a senior technology journalist at the BBC. He writes (in English) the Keeping Tabs column and is one of the hosts of the podcast The Interface. His work reveals the hidden systems that drive your digital life and how you can live better within them.
Read the original version of this report (in English) on the BBC Technology website.
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Source: G1