New York lawsuit alleges TikTok tested ineffective safety tool on minors
New York has alleged that TikTok gave thousands of users, including teenagers and children, a non-functioning version of its Algo Refresh safety feature during an experiment. The tool is intended to let users reset their recommendations and stop seeing unwanted or potentially harmful content, but the lawsuit says participants who believed they had enabled it saw no change to their feeds.
Reuters reported that users outside the experiment received a fully functioning version of Algo Refresh. New York’s claim is part of more than two dozen cases brought by states that accuse the social media platform of designing its service to encourage addictive use among children and misleading users about its safety measures.
Allegations focus on a recommendation-reset feature
Recommendation systems determine much of what users see on social platforms. Algo Refresh was presented as a way to clear or reset those recommendations when a user wanted to move away from content they considered unwanted or potentially harmful.
The lawsuit alleges that the experimental group did not receive that functional reset despite opting to use the safety control. The distinction is central to the complaint: users believed a protective feature had been activated, while their recommendations allegedly remained unchanged.
Scrutiny of TikTok’s safety experiments also includes US senators seek TikTok experiment details and the questions raised about how the company tested protections for younger users. Bloomberg reported in June that another experiment withheld a safety feature from 15 million US users, including a teenager who later died by suicide.
TikTok says it regularly tests features
TikTok told Reuters that it continuously improves its platform and, like most companies, regularly tests products and features to validate the experience and understand how they work in the real world. The company did not immediately return a request for comment to Reuters.
The allegations do not establish a court finding, but they add to the legal examination of how platforms design, test and describe safeguards for minors. They also underline the operational importance of distinguishing a live protection from an experiment when users are asked to rely on a safety setting.
Business implication
Businesses operating youth-facing digital services should make sure that safety controls perform as described for participants in testing, retain clear records of experiment scope and user treatment, and review whether product messaging accurately reflects the protection delivered.