New York alleges TikTok gave teens, children a placebo safety feature instead of a real one
New York lawsuit claims TikTok misled young users during 'Algo Refresh' feature testing
Quick Look
A New York lawsuit alleges TikTok subjected thousands of teens and children to a placebo version of its 'Algo Refresh' safety tool, failing to actually reset their recommendation feeds while users believed the feature was active.
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Why It Matters
TikTok is facing over two dozen state-led lawsuits accusing the platform of designing addictive features for children and misleading users regarding safety.
TikTok gave teens and children access to a placebo safety feature instead of a real one that would have let them refresh their recommendations in an experiment, according to allegations in New York’s lawsuit against the social media platform.
Reuters reports that TikTok’s experiments involved thousands of users, including teens and children, who had opted to use safety features like “Algo Refresh,” a tool that allows users to reset their recommendations and stop seeing unwanted or potentially harmful content.
Although the users believed that they had activated the feature, their feeds didn’t change, unlike those of users who weren’t part of the experiment and had access to a fully functioning version of the tool.
New York’s lawsuit against the company is one of more than two dozen cases brought by states that accuse the social media giant of designing its platform to encourage addictive use among children and misleading users about its safety.
“We continuously make improvements to our platform which means that, like most companies, we regularly test new products and features to validate the experience and understand how they work in the real world,” TikTok told Reuters.
TikTok did not immediately return a request for comment.
Open Questions
- How many users were impacted by the placebo experiment?
- What is the specific timeline of these experiments?
