According to the allegations in the lawsuit filed by the state of New York against this social media platform, TikTok provided a “placebo-like” safety feature to teenagers and children in an experiment, rather than a truly functional one; if it were the truly functional version, users could have used it to refresh recommended content.

Reuters reported that the experiment involving TikTok involved thousands of users, including teenagers and children. These users chose to use security features such as “Algo Refresh”. This tool allows users to reset recommended content and stop seeing things they don’t want to see or that may be harmful.

Although these users believe they have enabled this feature, their information flow has not changed; in contrast, users who were not included in the experiment and were able to use the full version of the tool experienced changes in their information flow.

The lawsuit filed against the company in New York State is one of more than twenty cases brought by states across the United States. These cases allege that the social media giant has designed its platform to encourage children to develop addictive habits and has misled users regarding safety issues.

TikTok told Reuters: "We continuously improve our platform, which means that, like most companies, we regularly test new products and features to verify the user experience and understand how they perform in the real world."

TikTok did not immediately respond to the request for comment.

The lawsuit also claimed that TikTok conducted other experiments. Bloomberg reported in June that one of these experiments disabled a security feature for 15 million American users, among whom was a teenager who later died by suicide.