Two US senators demand answers from TikTok about a "depraved" test that withheld a safety feature from 10% of US users, including a teenager who died by suicide (Olivia Carville/Bloomberg)

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.