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Senators Grill TikTok on Deadly Safety Feature Experiment
20 Aug
Summary
- Two senators demand answers from TikTok regarding a safety feature experiment.
- The experiment withheld a safeguard from 15 million U.S. users.
- A teenager died by suicide after being part of the experiment's control group.
U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal have set a firm deadline for TikTok to address serious concerns about an experiment. The senators described the company's decision to withhold a safety feature from 15 million U.S. users as "depraved."
The experiment involved disabling an algorithmic safeguard designed to prevent users from encountering harmful content. TikTok reportedly conducted this to assess the impact on user engagement, creating a control group that did not benefit from the safeguard.
Tragically, 16-year-old Chase Nasca was in this control group. His algorithm allegedly exposed him to content about sadness and suicide, shortly before he died by suicide. The senators require responses to 13 questions by September 1.
