Tik. Tok gave teens, children placebo safety feature in experiment, New York alleges

Tok selected thousands of users, including teens and children, who opted to use safety features like “Algo Refresh,” a tool designed to reset recommendations for users seeking to escape unwanted or potentially harmful content., those users believed they had activated ​the feature, but their feeds did not change, unlike users who got the fully working version.

The newly unsealed allegations are part of New ​York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit against the company, one of more than two dozen brought by states accusing Tik. Tok ⁠of designing its platform to addict children and of misleading users about its safety.

Many documents in state cases across the country have been sealed ​or heavily redacted as Tik. Tok has sought to keep details about its operations from public view. The lawsuit claims Tik.

Tok assures users that safety is a top ​priority and that its platform is appropriate for kids and teens, while knowingly preventing some groups of users from accessing certain safety tools, including users who had specifically sought to avoid unwanted or potentially harmful content.

"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," a Tik. Tok spokesperson said in a statement.

The company has broadly denied New York's allegations in ​court filings and has said that keeping young users safe is a priority. In September, Tik. Tok settled the first state lawsuit set for trial, agreeing to pay Alabama up to $300 million ‌and change ⁠how its platform functions for teens in the state.

James, a Democrat, originally sued in 2024. The claims about the tests were included in an updated, sealed version of New York’s complaint filed at the end of August and later ordered unsealed by a judge.

EMPLOYEE FLAGGED TESTInternally, a product manager for Digital Well Being at Tik. Tok, said doing placebo tests on the Algo Refresh feature was problematic and that users might find it misleading, the lawsuit alleges. “This feature is ​about algorithm transparency and control,” the ​person wrote in an internal chat, ⁠.

“A placebo group completely conflicts with that.”Ultimately the company did the tests repeatedly on thousands of users in 2023, comparing users who did not get the feature with those who did, to study how long ​users stayed on the site and the impact on ad revenue, the lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit also alleges that Tik.

Tok ​misled consumers about ⁠how “Algo Refresh” worked, telling them it would reset the algorithm that recommended videos to them when it was only a temporary change. The Tik. Tok spokesperson said the allegations mischaracterize how "Algo Refresh" works.

The unsealed portions of the lawsuit also allege that Tik. Tok conducted a separate set of experiments, which were previously revealed in a report by ⁠Bloomberg. In ​them, Tik.

Tok randomly selected users and turned off safety features on their accounts that limited ​their exposure to harmful content. A teen boy in New York who was part of the test committed suicide after he was shown content about self-harm and suicide, Bloomberg reported.

Internal reviews showed ​the boy had been shown an “onslaught” of content about suicide and self-harm, the lawsuit said.