Two US senators who demanded TikTok release a confidential document about an algorithmic experiment it ran on millions of users — including a teen who died by suicide — have called the company’s refusal to do so “appalling” and “offensive.” Bloomberg Businessweek has obtained the document and is making it public here for the first time.
A lawyer for TikTok said in a letter dated Sept. 1 that the company couldn’t hand over the document or respond to questions about it from Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal because of ongoing litigation. The questions were sent last month after Businessweek disclosed the existence of the document, which is sealed in that litigation. Written in 2023, it provides a detailed watch history of 16-year-old Chase Nasca, who killed himself after TikTok’s algorithm fed him thousands of videos about depression and suicide.