Two United States senators asked TikTok to explain a safety experiment. According to external disclosures, the experiment had deprived some United States users of algorithm protection and raised questions about whether the platform gave priority to user safety.
Experiment
Senators Martha Blackburn and Richard Blumenshal have written to Chief Executive Officer TikTok Zhou, and Adam Presser, the head of his United States operations. The letter asked the company to explain why the experiment had been conducted and stated that the practice was “gruesome”.
Involving minors
Bloomberg reported that TikTok deliberately closed an algorithm security protection as a control group for 10 per cent of users in the United States. This protection was intended to reduce the impact of harmful content on users. It was also reported that Chase Nasca, aged 16, was also in the control group and subsequently died from suicide.
The senator asked 13 questions.
Two senators asked TikTok to answer 13 questions, including which employees knew, why minors were allowed to enter the control group, and which algorithms in the United States had been closed or delayed. The Senator asked the company to respond by 1 September.