{"id":368011,"date":"2026-10-08T17:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T17:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/368011\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T17:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T17:24:10","slug":"new-york-accuses-tiktok-of-serving-users-placebo-safety-features","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/368011\/","title":{"rendered":"New York accuses TikTok of serving users \u2018placebo\u2019 safety features"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">New York is alleging that thousands of TikTok users, including kids and teens, were unknowingly given \u201cghost\u201d versions of the platform\u2019s safety features rather than the working versions. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/china\/tiktok-gave-teens-children-placebo-safety-feature-experiment-new-york-alleges-2026-10-07\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters<\/a> reports the allegation is part of an \u201cupdated, sealed version\u201d of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2024\/10\/8\/24265169\/tiktok-lawsuit-state-attorneys-general-kids-mental-health\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York\u2019s 2024 lawsuit against TikTok<\/a>, which was \u201clater ordered unsealed by a judge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">According to the new allegations, TikTok\u2019s \u201cexperiment\u201d effectively blocked some users from accessing features like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2023\/3\/16\/23642405\/tiktok-refresh-feature-for-you-page-feed-algorithm-reset\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">an option to reset your algorithm<\/a>, which can potentially help users avoid harmful content popping up in their feed. As Reuters notes, users in the experiment \u201cbelieved they had activated \u200bthe feature, but their feeds did not change, unlike users who got the fully working version.\u201d New York\u2019s newly unsealed claims also allege TikTok ran other tests like this, like one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/features\/2026-08-04\/confidential-tiktok-report-shows-algorithm-safety-feature-withheld-from-millions\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bloomberg<\/a> reported earlier this year where TikTok allegedly withheld a safety update to its algorithm for some users.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">TikTok spokesperson Nathaniel Brown said in a statement to The Verge, \u201cWe continuously make improvements to our platform which means that, like most companies, we regularly test new products and features to validate the experience and understand how they work in the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">New York also claims that a product manager for Digital Well Being at TikTok internally raised concerns about the test, saying, \u201cThis feature is \u200babout algorithm transparency and control [&#8230;] A placebo group completely conflicts with that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">The lawsuit claims TikTok misled users about the feature, as well, presenting Algo Refresh as a permanent reset, rather than a temporary one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York is alleging that thousands of TikTok users, including kids and teens, were unknowingly given \u201cghost\u201d versions&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[17953,9,11,10,12,1413,1601,9740],"class_list":["post-368011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-creators","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-news","tag-policy","tag-tech","tag-tiktok"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}