TikTok boasted about adding measures to protect teenagers from harmful content, but deliberately kept them from 15 million Americans until one killed himself, and then lied about being responsible.
TikTok intentionally disabled new safety features for a control group of around 15 million Americans.
TikTok intentionally disabled new safety features for a control group of around 15 million Americans.
Even before the US questioned the security of Chinese social media platform TikTok, the service’s parent company was regularly under fire over child safety fears. All social media platforms were warned about damaging teenage mental health, Facebook ditched its pre-teen Instagram plans, and the Surgeon General told firms to increase safety standards.
All of which would be why TikTok made a show in 2021 of introducing new safeguards to protect users from harmful content. Yet to find out whether these measures actually worked, TikTok decided it was worth risking 15 million American users.