U.S. Senators Ask TikTok to Answer for its “Depraved” Safety Experiment on Children

Two U.S. senators are demanding answers from TikTok over a “depraved” experiment it ran that involved secretly withholding a safety feature from millions of users — including children — on its platform.

With an estimated one billion users worldwide — including upwards of 135 million in the U.S. — TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms on the planet. Its Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, has been valued at $300 billion.

But for years, TikTok has been under scrutiny for struggling to protect private user data from entities in China — including the Chinese Communist Party — and the platform has been accused of serving users a steady “diet of darkness” online.

TikTok’s attorneys and representatives have often denied or downplayed accusations against the platform, arguing the company takes safety very seriously. But a recent Bloomberg report shows that in 2022, the social media giant knowingly endangered teens and other users by disabling a key safety measure on TikTok’s algorithm for millions of users.

The LA Times says TikTok disabled the safety feature as part of an experiment to see how the feature affected user behavior. The news has prompted letters from at least two U.S. senators.

Last Thursday, U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) sent a letter demanding answers from TikTok.

The letter says TikTok failed to tell the public about “its depraved decision to intentionally withhold these protections from approximately 10 percent of its U.S. users—a control group that reportedly represented approximately 15 million Americans at the time.”

The letter says that in January of 2022, TikTok disabled safety features on 16-year-old Chase Nasca’s TikTok account, causing him to be inundated with “thousands of videos involving themes of sadness, hopelessness, loneliness, suicide, and self-harm” on TikTok.

The following month, Chase died by suicide.

The senators ask TikTok to provide detailed information about the secret experiment and any others TikTok has run.

Leaders in Arkansas have raised concerns about harmful content on TikTok for the past several years.

In 2023, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin filed a pair of consumer protection lawsuits against TikTok in state court.

The legal complaints call the TikTok app “a Chinese ‘Trojan Horse’ unleashed on unsuspecting American consumers,” and highlight how TikTok fails to protect private user data.

The Attorney General’s office argues that TikTok’s algorithm “force-feeds” objectionable content to users — including “illegal drug use, sex, violence, and self-harm.”

The A.G.’s team says that TikTok deceptively labeled its app as being appropriate for ages 13 and up when it really should have been rated 17+.

As we have said again and again, there is growing evidence that social media platforms may deliberately addict users, promote objectionable content, and put people’s personal information at risk.

Social media platforms are more than just phone apps or websites. These are multibillion-dollar businesses, and the adults who profit from them need to be held accountable when they harm innocent people.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.