YouTube, TikTok attacked for control of audienceThe global reach of social media has become essential to the media business but content owners are at the mercy of Big Tech and especially vulnerable to the algorithm, heavyweight US execs told the Royal Television Society in the UK. “Social media have the central ability to control the media experience of the audience,” said Kevin Mayer, co-founder and co-CEO of Candle Media at the annual RTS Cambridge Convention. “You launch a video on TikTok and it overnight you can have 5m followers but you can’t monetize on that. For TikTok, it's all about the technology and the algorithm to figure out exactly what every single user wants. If you're a professional content creator TikTok does not offer you money to put you content on TikTok and it’s not going to happen either.