It's not just about the data that Tiktok pulls from its users, its also about what it pushes to them. Tiktok feeds in the US and the rest of the world tend to be wildly different than those in China. Douyin, Tiktok's Chinese version, primarily features content related to self-improvement, martial arts, life hacks, exceptional individual achievements, motivational clips etc. Meanwhile Tiktok in the rest of the world primarily features unhinged teenagers doing silly dances, random movie/TV show clips with cringy music added in, "reaction" videos and other immature antics. A clear-cut difference in priorities and intentions baked into their algorithms.