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

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 is known as 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 manage social networks. 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. 'Brazil' becomes 'bra' in the FIFA ranking translated into Portuguese; understand 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, a mistake would create distorted and chaotic environments, full of tunnels and strange structures. "Minecraft's Farlands were the extreme 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 follow the same idea. "It's the end of the internet, where everything gets weird. You go off the beaten track and take a turn in the wrong direction." 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 put a code in the search bar and found something completely different from my usual experience on TikTok. 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 TV wires screamed in agony, while a teenager watched with a video game controller. Much of this material was too disturbing for the BBC to offer a link. And I recommend a little caution before making any observations. Visitors to the 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 the 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 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 happens." In the comments of these strange videos, you can find people writing repeatedly, 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. Will it be true? Impossible to say. Social media algorithms are a black box. I contacted TikTok but did not receive a response. “People are trying to regain control of their feeds and their internet experiences,” explains Maddox. "It's a reflection of our fatigue with the feeds generated by algorithms and our anxiety about the force they exert on our lives, determining what we observe." "The internet is overwhelming. In some ways, the Farlands represent the hope that you have actually found the end, arriving at a place where you can truly stop." Read also: Brazilian takes command of Microsoft's new artificial intelligence division; find out who you are Following the trend This whole discussion about the "end of the internet" is a bit paradoxical. The purpose 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 bold or artistic. But some of these supposedly "dark" Farlands posts 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. The real Farlands videos have no titles, no tags, and "certainly don't 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 out in search of it. Also read: AGU notifies Google in Brazil about YouTube profiles that promote illegal betting 'A bit scary, a bit bizarre' TikTok Farlands are a relatively new phenomenon. But there are many memes, ideas, aesthetics and old videos there. Some of this content brings back metaphors from the era of creepypastas, a genre of ghost stories from the early modern internet. Many videos share the aesthetic of deep fried memes, with images that go through various 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 feels like a hodgepodge of different materials from throughout the history of the internet," according to Walker. "It's niche, kind of scary, kind of bizarre." Still, there is something different here. For starters, much of the popular content people describe as Farlands looks more like commentary on technology and social media itself. Posts from Shane Moore, better known as @smoorel8r, start with the typical TikTok food reviews, until the image degrades as if it were a corrupted video file, with scenes that look like horror films appearing and disappearing. Others, like @realityisoptional.net and Lucas Wilm, produce videos that look less like social media and more like the art videos we find in museums. Several content creators told me that they were already doing this style of content before the Farlands started talking. I ask Aidan Walker whether coverage of the Farlands by a mainstream press like the BBC might make it all seem less appealing. “It’s already something conventional,” he responds. "It's a big part of some people's media consumption." In other words, the most interesting creators have probably already left. But there is a sense in the Farlands discourse that something subversive is happening, especially as people are finding ways to manipulate the algorithms. “They defy the logic of what good content should be,” according to Maddox. "TikTok likes certain content. Instagram likes certain content. Farlands goes against all of that." Technological rebellion It is necessary to remember that, if all this makes you spend more time on TikTok, the result will be exactly what the platform wants. Either way, 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 backlash against AI is so popular that even the Pope has spoken out about it. In general, there is a feeling that a technological rebellion is emerging in our society. It might 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. Her 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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