Senators demand answers from TikTok over disabled safety feature
Two US senators have asked TikTok for detailed answers after Bloomberg reported the company disabled an algorithmic safety feature for roughly 10% of US users beginning in 2021. A confidential 2023 internal TikTok document obtained through litigation shows a 16-year-old placed in an unprotected control group in January 2022 was subsequently fed thousands of videos about sadness, suicide and loneliness and died by suicide the following month. Senators Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal, co-authors of the Kids Online Safety Act, sent a letter to CEO Shou Chew with 13 questions, including why minors were included, and set a September 1 response deadline.
TikTok disabled a safety algorithm for about 10% of US users.
Context
Bloomberg published a report based on a 2023 internal document obtained in litigation. Senators sent a letter to TikTok and asked 13 questions. TikTok must respond by September 1 and further scrutiny could follow.
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