This article explores three genres of TikTok content in which creators and users collaborate to re(direct) the value they create on-platform toward specific needs, people, and causes. Drawing from literatures on platform economies, user and creator labor, algorithmic imaginaries and resistance, and mutual aid, we used algorithmic ethnography to identify and define major genres of content, eventually creating a sample of 192 TikTok videos (including comments and metadata) and conducting a thematic analysis. The videos and practices shared the following themes: realizations of on-platform value, tactics oriented against platform logics and monetization programs, shared theories of value, and digital collaboration for a cause. We argue the genres constitute forms of algorithmic mutual aid, a practice unfolding in platform economies that demonstrates people’s increased recognition of the value of their digital labor, and efforts to reorient platform logics of value, visibility, and compensation to care for one another.

中文翻译：

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收回与回馈TikTok：平台经济中的算法互助

本文探讨了 TikTok 内容的三种类型，其中创作者和用户合作，将他们在平台上创造的价值重新（引导）到特定的需求、人群和事业。借鉴有关平台经济、用户和创作者劳动、算法想象和抵抗以及互助的文献，我们使用算法民族志来识别和定义主要内容类型，最终创建了 192 个 TikTok 视频的样本（包括评论和元数据）并进行了主题分析。这些视频和实践分享了以下主题：平台价值的实现、针对平台逻辑和货币化计划的策略、共享的价值理论以及一项事业的数字协作。我们认为，这些类型构成了算法互助的形式，这是平台经济中展开的一种实践，表明人们对数字劳动价值的认识不断提高，并努力重新调整价值、可见性和补偿的平台逻辑，以相互关心。