Newly unsealed allegations in New York's lawsuit say TikTok gave some users, including minors, a non-working version of a safety feature meant to reset recommendations.
New York Attorney General Letitia James added allegations, unsealed on Wednesday, that TikTok ran experiments in which some users who tried to turn on a safety tool received a version that did not work. Reuters reported that the claims are part of the state's existing child-safety lawsuit against the company.
According to the unsealed allegations, TikTok selected thousands of users, including teens and children, who opted into features such as Algo Refresh, a tool meant to reset recommendations for people trying to leave unwanted content. Those users believed the feature was on, but their feeds did not change, unlike users who received a working version, the lawsuit says.
More than two dozen states have sued TikTok, accusing it of designing the platform to addict children and of misleading users about safety, Reuters reported. Bloomberg said the new claims draw on a Businessweek report about an algorithmic test that began in 2021 and affected about 15 million US users.
The lawsuit also refers to a New York teen in the test who later died. This brief does not describe that death. Internal reviews cited in the filing said the boy had been shown a large amount of self-harm content, Reuters reported.
Reuters did not quote a fresh company response in the portions of the story available on Wednesday night. The case remains in litigation, and the new material is an allegation in a court filing rather than a judicial finding.