What is TikTok’s Share Bot trend? Everything to know about becoming a viral creator on the platform

TikTok users have chanced upon a new Share Bot that's allowing them to generate millions of shares with just a click, and it's all the rage. Creators' success on all social media platforms is primarily driven by virality and user engagement, but this is especially true for TikTok.

This new Share Bot trend might have creators rejoicing at the prospect of hitting the jackpot and fulfilling their goal of becoming overnight viral influencers. However, this quick hack comes with real potential repercussions that far outweigh any benefit.

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How does TikTok's Share Bot work?

Three days ago, a TikToker @coder.mohanadhosny posted a video of rapid code flashing on the screen. The code read 'Successfully sent a new share,' followed by the total number of shares, which numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

Since then, the clip has garnered 7.2 million views and prompted a chain of similar videos and tutorials showing how to do the same. The #sharebot hashtag has over 147.3 million views at writing.

The Share Bot at the root of the trend is from the coding platform Replit, created back in 2016. All one has to do is feed the desired video's link into the code and enter the number of shares they wish to generate. The bot does the rest automatically by interfering with the short video platform's algorithm.

Creators are lured into the temptation to use fraudulent hacks like this to rake in more views through the shares and, subsequently, fast-track their follower count.

TikTok's algorithm is already more conducive to spotlighting even unestablished creators than other social media platforms. Creators might have a handful of their videos hit thousands, and sometimes even millions, of views in a pure stroke of luck. However, steadily growing one's audience and generating significant user engagement organically still seems daunting and tedious for many smaller creators.

Although the Share Bot delivers exactly what it promises, i.e., as many shares as one wishes, it does not change the actual number of views on the video. This results in a skewed proportion of views to shares which is bound to raise alarms with TikTok authorities sooner rather than later.

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Consequences of using the Share Bot

TikTok's community guidelines don't allow activities that undermine the integrity of its platform or the authenticity of its users. The guidelines outline the following definition for 'fake engagement':

"Fake engagement includes any content or activity that seeks to artificially inflate popularity on the platform. We prohibit any attempts to manipulate the platform to increase interaction metrics."

Additionally, it issues these instructions to its users:

• Do not share instructions on artificially increasing views, likes, followers, shares, or comments.
• Do not sell or buy views, likes, followers, shares, or comments.
• Do not promote artificial traffic generation services.
• To distribute commercial spam, do not operate multiple TikTok accounts under false or fraudulent pretenses.
• Do not create malicious software or modify code to artificially increase views, likes, followers, shares, or comments.

If TikTok gets a whiff of the creators who unethically use the Share Bot, the repercussions could range from getting shadowbanned to being permanently banned from the platform. Violating TikTok's community guidelines doesn't seem worth the risk of simply racking up extorted shares that don't necessarily translate into views.

The Share Bot is also highly harmful to legitimate creators who don't resort to these artificial boosting tactics, undermining their content's performance.