TikTok Gave Thousands of Teens and Kids a Placebo Safety Tool That Changed Nothing, New York Alleges

Thousands of TikTok users, including teens and children, pressed a button that was supposed to clean up their feeds. According to New York's attorney general, for many of them the button did nothing at all, and TikTok knew it.

The allegation sits in newly unsealed parts of Letitia James's lawsuit against the company. An amended complaint was filed under seal at the end of August, and a judge later ordered it unsealed, The Next Web reports. Reuters first reported the details on 7 October.

A reset button that reset nothing

The feature is called Algo Refresh. It resets your recommendations so you stop seeing videos you don't want, including ones that could be harmful. In tests during 2023, the complaint says, TikTok put some users who chose to switch it on into a placebo group.

Those users believed the reset had worked. Their feeds did not change, unlike those of users who got the real version, TechCrunch reports.

What the tests measured is the uncomfortable part. According to the complaint, TikTok tracked how the feature affected time spent in the app and ad sales.

Not everyone inside the company was on board. A product manager on TikTok's Digital Well Being team objected in an internal chat: "This feature is about algorithm transparency and control. A placebo group completely conflicts with that."

The suit also says TikTok marketed Algo Refresh as a permanent reset when it was only temporary, according to The Verge.

TikTok says this is normal testing

TikTok spokesperson Nathaniel Brown framed it as routine product work. "We 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," he said.

The company says the lawsuit paints a false picture of how Algo Refresh works, and it has denied New York's claims in court.

A second withheld update

The unsealed filing also folds in a separate test Bloomberg reported earlier this year. In that one, TikTok withheld a safety update from about 10 percent of its US users, roughly 15 million people.

A 16-year-old from New York who was in that group died by suicide in 2022 after seeing self-harm and suicide content. Senators Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal later sent TikTok 13 written questions about the test.

One of many cases

James first sued in October 2024 alongside 14 other state attorneys general. More than two dozen states have now taken TikTok to court, alleging the app was built to hook children.

The pressure is already costing money. In September TikTok agreed to pay Alabama up to $300 million to settle the case that was set to become the first to reach trial, closing out the Alabama fight over teen mental health. New York's case is still being fought, now with a placebo at its center.

Some offers on this page may be paid placements or contain affiliate links.