A report found that TikTok has intentionally removed safeguards that prevented users from harmful content|Solen Feyissa|CC BY-SA 2.0
US Senators Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to TikTok demanding answers from executives over an experiment that kept a safety feature from millions of users.
Bloomberg Businessweek reported this week that the social media giant intentionally disabled a safety feature for 10% of US users, around 15 million people, that was designed to protect them from harmful content.
The experiment put them at risk of seeing potentially harmful content as part of a control group.
Among those impacted was 16-year-old Chase Nasca, who was randomly selected. He received thousands of videos on depression and loneliness, and died by suicide in 2022.
The revelations have renewed legislative urgency around child online safety. TikTok is given until September 1 to respond to the senators.