Framing the climate: How TikTok’s algorithm shapes environmental discourse

• TikTok’s design favors affective climate content over scientific depth or nuance. • Content rarely includes long-form or justice-based climate framings. • Youth-driven activism thrives but is shaped by platform design. • The “algorithmic spiral cycle” emerges through engagement loops and stylistic mimicry. • TikTok’s virality logic amplifies simplified climate narratives. This study investigates how TikTok’s platform design, algorithmic infrastructure, and engagement logic shape the public’s understanding of climate change. As the platform grows into a dominant space for media consumption, it has reshaped the contours of how environmental issues are communicated and emotionally processed. Drawing on a scoping review of 17 peer-reviewed articles and a platform walkthrough simulating a new user experience, this paper examines how emotional and performative content rises in visibility, while epistemically grounded, systemic, or justice-oriented narratives are often marginalized. We introduce and discuss the concept of the algorithmic spiral cycle ; a feedback loop in which platform logic and user interaction mutually reinforce affective urgency, selective exposure, and ideological closure. Three interlocking dynamics emerge from the analysis: (1) affective urgency, (2) narrative amplification, and (3) platform immersion. While TikTok offers novel opportunities for engagement and participatory science communication, its emphasis on virality and personalization often comes at the expense of deliberation, complexity, and informational diversity. This article contributes to emerging scholarship on climate communication, platform studies, and digital media governance by offering an empirical and conceptual framework for understanding how TikTok’s architecture mediates climate discourse. These findings underscore the need for critical platform literacy and regulatory approaches that address the sociotechnical shaping of environmental discourse in digital spaces.