Senators demand answers from TikTok over experiment that disabled safeguards
The safeguard was designed to prevent users from being overwhelmed by harmful content, but TikTok wanted to determine whether it made the app less engaging.
Two U.S. senators, Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal, have urged TikTok to provide answers regarding an experiment that disabled a safety feature for 15 million American users, including a teenager who tragically took his own life. In a letter to TikTok's CEO Shou Chew and Adam Presser, the senators called the company's decision "depraved."
Bloomberg reported that TikTok intentionally turned off an algorithmic safeguard for about 10% of U.S. users, creating a control group to determine if the company could make the app less engaging. One of the individuals in this control group was 16-year-old Chase Nasca, whose algorithm was bombarded with content about sadness, suicide, and loneliness until his death by suicide.
The senators are demanding a range of 13 questions about the experiment, including the names of every employee who knew about it and why minors were included in the control group. They are also seeking a list of all algorithmic experiments conducted in the U.S. while TikTok disabled or delayed safety features. The senators have given TikTok until September 1 to respond. As of now, TikTok has not provided a comment to TechCrunch.
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