Social media isn’t just about funny dances or cute animals. It’s also home to news, product announcements, comedy, and sometimes, disturbing and harmful content. Now, social media platforms usually have guardrails in place to protect users from harmful content, but for some reason, TikTok decided to conduct an experiment. Now, senators are demanding answers from TikTok on why they did it.
Senators want answers from TikTok on its experiment
According to a report from Bloomberg, it seems that TikTok intentionally disabled an algorithmic safeguard for 10% of its users in the US. This safeguard was put into place to prevent users from being overwhelmed by harmful content. However, TikTok was curious to see if these safeguards would make the app less engaging.
Unfortunately, it seems that TikTok’s experiment backfired. The experiment began back in 2021, and one of the people placed in the unprotected control group in January 2022 was a 16-year-old teen. Over the following weeks, his algorithm fed him thousands of videos about sadness, suicide, and loneliness. He died by suicide the following month. The details only came to light now because Bloomberg discovered a confidential internal TikTok document from 2023, obtained through litigation.
Now, it looks like two US senators, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), are asking TikTok for answers. In a letter sent to TikTok CEO Shou Chew, the senators didn’t mince words. They called the company’s decision to run the experiment “depraved.” Their questions include the names of the employees who knew about the experiment. Also, more importantly, why were minors allowed to be part of the experiment.
They have given TikTok until September 1 to respond.
Dangers of social media
This isn’t the first time that we’ve heard about the potential dangers of social media. This is why regulators and governments are increasingly going after social media companies over what kind of safety measures are in place for minors.
We’ve already seen the dangers of conversational AI. We’ve seen what happens when AI companies let their models run wild, feeding into the delusions of users. It also explains why a number of governments around the world are implementing social media bans for youths. Unfortunately, we won’t know the effectiveness of these policies until much later. But we suppose it’s better than nothing.
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