Senators demand answers from TikTok over experiment that disabled safeguards
U.S. senators are demanding answers from TikTok regarding an internal experiment that disabled safety features for 15 million users. The inquiry follows reports that a teenager who died by suicide was part of the control group exposed to harmful content.
Why it matters
This highlights growing legislative scrutiny over how social media algorithms impact user safety and the ethical implications of corporate A/B testing on minors.
Two senators have given TikTok a deadline to answer questions about an experiment that withheld a safety feature from 15 million U.S. users, including a teenager who later died by suicide.
Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sent a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Chew and Adam Presser, CEO of the company’s U.S. business, calling the company’s decision to run the experiment “depraved.”
Bloomberg reported that TikTok intentionally disabled an algorithmic safeguard for 10% of U.S. users, creating a control group for the experiment. 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, so it decided to conduct the experiment.
One of the people in the control group was 16-year-old Chase Nasca, whose algorithm fed him thousands of videos about sadness, suicide, and loneliness up until he died by suicide.
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