TikTok accused of testing non-working safety feature on teens and children

Thousands of TikTok users who turned on a safety tool, Algo Refresh, were handed a version that did not work, according to allegations in New York Attorney General Letitia James’s lawsuit unsealed on Wednesday, per Reuters.

Algo Refresh is built to reset a user’s recommendations when they want to get away from unwanted or harmful videos.

In what the lawsuit calls ghost or placebo experiments, users in the placebo group received confirmation that Algo Refresh had been activated even though their recommendations were not reset, the lawsuit alleges.

New York says users were misled

The lawsuit alleges TikTok assures users that safety is a top priority and that the platform is appropriate for children and teenagers, while knowingly withholding safety tools from certain groups, including users who had specifically sought to avoid harmful content.

Per the lawsuit, the firm had misled the users on the functionality of Algo Refresh, which was actually a temporary reset of the algorithm used for recommendations.

Tiktok continued running the experiments on thousands of users throughout 2023, as per the filing, comparing those who were using the feature and those who weren’t, looking at how much time users spent on the platform and how the configuration impacted the ad revenue.

A spokesperson said the company makes continuous improvements and, like most companies, regularly tests new products and features to validate the experience and understand how they work in the real world.

TikTok has broadly denied New York’s allegations in court filings and says keeping young users safe is a priority.

TikTok employee warned the placebo test could mislead users

A product manager for Digital Well Being told colleagues that placebo testing on Algo Refresh was problematic and that users might find it misleading, the lawsuit alleges.

“This feature is about algorithm transparency and control,” the person wrote in an internal chat. “A placebo group completely conflicts with that.” The company ran the tests regardless.

The allegations surfaced after the complaint was unsealed

Attorney General James filed the case in 2024, while the latest allegations were included in an amended complaint filed under seal at the end of August 2026. They became public only after a judge ordered the complaint unsealed.

According to Reuters, many documents in other state lawsuits against TikTok have also been sealed or highly redacted in an attempt to keep the information about internal practices of the company secret.

The unsealed complaint also alleges another experiment where TikTok apparently turned off some of its safety measures for random users. One such teenager from New York who was chosen as part of this test took his own life, according to internal investigations reported in the lawsuit, which showed that his account had been filled with content about suicide and self-harm.

The experiment had also drawn attention in Washington as well, where in August, Senator Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal termed it “depraved.” The two senators put 13 questions to TikTok regarding the test to understand how it was designed, who approved it, and the supposed safeguards in place.

New York’s lawsuit is part of a much broader legal challenge. More than 20 states have alleged that TikTok has designed features to foster compulsive use among youth, despite the company’s exaggerated claims about its safety measures.

That pressure has already resulted in settlements. In September, TikTok agreed to pay Alabama up to $300 million and make changes to how its platform works for teenagers, resolving the first of the state cases that had been scheduled to go to trial.

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