Tech article
New York alleges TikTok gave teens, children a placebo safety feature instead of a real one
Publisher description: New York’s lawsuit against the company is one of more than two dozen cases brought by states accusing the social media giant of designing its platform to encourage addictive use among children.
TechCrunch | Oct 8, 2026 | Aisha Malik
Automated excerpt
TikTok gave teens and children access to a placebo safety feature instead of a real one that would have let them refresh their recommendations in an experiment, according to allegations in New York’s lawsuit against the social media platform. Reuters reports that TikTok’s experiments involved thousands of users, including teens and children, who had opted to use safety features like “Algo Refresh,” a tool that allows users to reset their recommendations and stop seeing unwanted or potentially harmful content. The lawsuit also claims that TikTok conducted other experiments.
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