TikTok Safety Feature Investigation

0:00What if data didn't sit still? What if intelligence moved with us? Not buried in reports, but activated in real time, where lives are being shaped, where decisions are being made. It all starts with a question. Where is the potential? Cotality turns data into clarity, intelligence into insight, insight into action. Because when intelligence moves, we all move forward. Cotality. Intelligence beyond bounds. This is Jacob Goldstein from What's Your Problem. Running a business is hard enough. Don't make it harder with a dozen apps that don't talk to each other. One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting.

0:42That's software overload. Odoo is the all-in-one platform that replaces them all. CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR. Fully integrated, easy to use, and built to grow with your business. Thousands have already made the switch. Why not you? Try Odoo for free at O-D-O-O dot com. That's Odoo dot com.

1:29learn more and where to buy. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenevek on Bloomberg Radio.

1:51Carol Massar:We do want to get to a Bloomberg Business Week exclusive original reporting. It's on a story about a confidential document that says, kept a safety feature from millions of TikTok users, about 15 million, by design as part of an experiment. One of those users died by suicide. There is a lot of careful reporting here to get to. The story by the award-winning and recognized Bloomberg News investigative reporter Olivia Carville. She joins us here on set. The story, by the way, is also today's Bloomberg Big Take. Olivia, good to have you here. This story is about a document. What is this document?

2:27What does it tell us? Thank you so much for having me on. So I think it's important to have context around this document. And for that, we've got to go back in time. Early 2022, a 16 year old boy from Long Island took his own life. He died by suicide. After this happened, his mum, who didn't understand, went searching through his social media accounts, trying to find like a sense of what had happened to him. When she found his TikTok account, she was shocked by the fact that the algorithm was sending him non-stop, distressing, depressing videos, many of them encouraging suicide. A year later, I reach out to the company because I'm writing a story about this young boy and the way the algorithm was sending him so much sad content.

3:11And I asked the company, what had happened to Chase NASCAR's account? Why is the algorithm sending him all of these videos about suicide? that sparked an internal review at TikTok. It's an extraordinary review where they do a deep dive into his watch history, what he was seeing in the weeks, days, and hours before he died. And that review is what is contained within this confidential document. Tell us more about Chase. Who is he? Chase was a 16-year-old boy from Long Island. He was a high school junior, an elite athlete, really good at swimming, really good at soccer. He had a big group of friends.

3:50He had no mental health issues. There was no depression, no anxiety in his background. He was an honors student. There was no warning shots that there was a concern with his own mental health. His death was a mystery to his friends, to his family. But what happened in January of 2022 is that this young teenage boy started sharing very dark videos on TikTok with his friends. videos about suicide. They didn't understand why he was sharing this content and it happened very quickly and this document tells us why. What does it tell us? It tells us that this teenage boy's account, this very normal teenage boy, was pushed into a filter bubble of suicide and self-harm content.

4:39That's like an online echo chamber where he has repetitively recommended depressing, sad videos, many of them encouraging suicide. And it tells us why he was pushed into that filter bubble. So let's go there.

4:53Carol Massar:Why was he pushed into this so-called filter bubble? So again, if we go back in time in early 2022, TikTok has realized that these filter bubbles can be quite harmful for its users. And at this point, TikTok has 150 million American users. They want to make the platform safer. So they design a feature to break up repetitive videos about the same topic. So rather than getting sad video, sad video, sad video, you get sad video, funny video, happy video, silly video. They want to break up those filter bubbles. So they roll out this feature, which they call a filter bubble prevention strategy, but they hold back 10 % of US users.

5:36That's one of the most important figures in this document. They withhold 15 million Americans from this safeguard because they want to test engagement. They want to understand how the safety feature is going to impact how long you stay logged on for. So this group that they held back who didn't get essentially the safety feature, right, that was their control group? That was their control group. So this was an experiment? This was an experiment. In their own words in this document, they refer to it as an experiment. And Chase Nasker was in that control group.

6:13Go ahead, Carol.

6:14Carol Massar:Well, one thing I want to ask, because you and I have talked about this story and I've read it, and we've read it. When they held it back in the document, TikTok says they held it back. They held back the safety feature by design. Why are those two words important? Those two words are so important, Carol, because right now in U.S. courts, There is a broad litigation alleging that social media platforms are dangerous and addictive by design, that these companies have created platforms that are engineered for addiction, that what their main goal is is to keep you logged on for as long as possible, regardless of how that may impact your mental health.

6:54And so for the first time, we're seeing a social media platform use that same language that they experimented on millions of U.S. users, including teenagers. And that as part of that experiment, they withheld a safety feature from one of those teenage users, quote, by design. This was the company intentionally, deliberately holding back that safeguard. It speaks to there was an awareness, right? That's right. It speaks to intent. I want to read the company's response that they sent you. In response to questions about the document, a TikTok spokesperson sent a written statement saying the company was, quote, deeply committed to the safety and well-being of users, especially teens.

7:38Our hearts break for any family that experienced a tragic loss, the spokesperson said. quote, to help protect our community, we continue to invest significantly in trust and safety, including robust detection systems and dedicated enforcement teams that proactively remove content that violates our community guidelines.

7:55Carol Massar:So Olivia, that was the company's response in the last couple of weeks? That was the company's response this week to this story. And it's important to point out TikTok has 40 ,000 people working on their trust and safety team. They have huge investments. How many people? 40 ,000 people working on trust and safety. More than a billion dollars is spent trying to safeguard this platform. So there are huge efforts underway to do this. But I also think what this document shows us is that sometimes these decisions are made too fast without thinking about the impact on the user. Can you talk about this?

8:30And you answered this a little bit before we read the statement, but the broader trend of social media companies over the last couple of years, I mean, you and the team did a great documentary on this, about the pressure that they've come under, not just from lawmakers, but also from lawsuits that have been filed on behalf of families. Yeah. And I was mentioning the litigation earlier. So this is thousands of lawsuits that have been filed right across the country.

8:57Carol Massar:Can I just put a number? Because you put a number on it. You said more than 4 ,000 personal injury lawsuits have been filed accusing social media companies harming children's mental health. Many though, right, have been consolidated. Yep, been consolidated into two tracks, one in state court, one in federal court. In addition to those 4 ,000 lawsuits, 1 ,200 school districts have filed the same case against the social media platforms, alleging that they are addictive and that they have drained school resources, unlike mental health counseling. And in addition to that, we're seeing 42 state attorneys general file suit against the companies alleging the same thing.

9:34So there is massive litigation unfolding across the US right now. We saw the very first trial earlier this year where Google and Meta were held accountable for harming the mental health of a 20-year-old woman. And documents like this are surfacing right now because of that litigation. These companies went through a two-year discovery process, and they handed over more than 6 million internal documents to the lawyers. So now we get a first kind of behind the scenes look at what was really happening inside the world's biggest social media platforms as they fought to grow their users. And this is an incredibly competitive space.

10:14You know, the main goal is to keep you logged on for as long as possible. And they don't want to lose users to other platforms. And so this is part of that.

10:24Carol Massar:I mean, that's the thing, right? It's about bringing more users and then also say like kind of managing against safety, like managing those two things. And what it's called in the trust and safety space, Carol, it's a trade-off, a trade-off between user safety and user growth. How do we keep the platform growing as fast as it can, but keep it as safe as it can be for the users? And too often the companies, according to these lawsuits and according to previous reporting are dialing up the user growth priority and dialing back the user safety priority. What's so important in this story, and I highly recommend people check it out also on the Bloomberg, but you can tell in the reporting you're very careful about laying out the timeline.

11:07Carol Massar:I just want to go back to that for a moment because there was a congressional hearing back in March, on March 23rd, 2023 with TikTok's CEO answering questions from lawmakers. is that an important moment in time too? Hugely important for this timeline. So if we think about what's happening, now that we have this document, we know that inside the company, they were doing this review of Chase Nasker's account to try and understand what had happened to his account and why he was receiving so many videos about suicide. They figure out why. And that's because he had that safeguard withheld from his account.

11:43And that same month, that very same month, the CEO is testifying before Congress answering questions about child safety. And I do want to point to just one of the follow-up questions that they got from Congress. They were asked specifically, how many cases is TikTok aware of where users have committed suicide after receiving sad, depressing, or suicide-promoting videos? We know the company knew that it had sent those kind of videos to Chase NASCAR because of this document, and this was the written response. TikTok does not believe that use of the platform has caused users to commit suicide.

12:23Carol Massar:And again, what's key is timing in all of this, which you lay out. He testified two weeks after that in-depth review, right? That TikTok did, of Chase's account. That's right. This was in the written responses to Congress that came from the company rather than from TikTok's CEO. We're not aware of whether or not he was made aware of this review, but the company responded to congressional questions and put on the record that they didn't believe that their platform had caused any users to commit suicide, and this was said after this review was conducted. As we said, laid out, and the dates and the timeline are so important, as well as some of the words that were said.

13:01Carol Massar:Thank you so much. We really appreciate it, always. Bloomberg News investigative reporter Olivia Carville. Her full reporting, it is today's Bloomberg Big Take. It is on the Bloomberg. It can also be found at Bloomberg.com. Aging is real, and so are the benefits of adding vital proteins, collagen peptides to your daily routine. New Vital Proteins Collagen Sparkling Water. Your daily glow-up now in three fresh flavors. Strawberry blossom, lemon lime, and blood orange. Improved skin health in as little as 30 days thanks to collagen peptides. Cheers to that. Or go with our classic collagen peptides.

13:32So you can stay vital, stay you. Visit vitalproteins.com to learn more and where to buy. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Some people use ChatGPT to answer questions. Others use it to get real work done. With ChatGPT Work, you bring the goal, plus real inputs like briefs, notes, files, feedback, data, and project plans. It can help turn them into an analysis, tracker, deck outline, prototype, or workflow you can review and keep shaping. You stay in control, giving direction and choosing the final output.

14:04Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at ChatGPT.com by selecting Work Mode. Available on Plus and Pro Plans. Hey everyone, it's Cal Penn. I'm inviting you to join the best sounding book club you've ever heard with my podcast, Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. Every episode, I nerd out with amazing guests and dive into the best new audiobooks available on Audible. It's the book club for your ears. Listen to Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.