U.S. Senators Demand Explanations from TikTok Over the Disabling of a Security Mechanism

U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal are demanding an explanation from TikTok regarding an experiment in which a safety feature was disabled for 15 million users in the U.S. In a letter to TikTok CEO Shaw Chu and the company’s U.S. business CEO Adam Presser, they described the decision to conduct such an experiment as highly unethical.

According to TechCrunch, citing Bloomberg, TikTok intentionally disabled an algorithmic safety mechanism for 10% of users in the U.S., creating a control group. This mechanism was designed to prevent users from being overexposed to harmful content. According to Bloomberg, the company sought to determine whether this protection made the app less appealing to its audience.

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The control group included 16-year-old Chase Nasca, who later died by suicide. According to the publication, prior to his death, the algorithm had recommended thousands of videos to him about sadness, suicide, and loneliness.

Senators posed 13 questions to TikTok regarding the experiment. In particular, they are demanding that the company name all employees who were aware of it and explain why minors were included in the control group. They are also asking for a list of all algorithmic experiments in the U.S. during which the platform disabled or delayed the implementation of safety features. TikTok must respond by September 1. The company did not provide TechCrunch with a comment immediately after the editorial team reached out.