A new report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate released Thursday claims that TikTok's algorithm serves harmful content to teens every 39 seconds.
Photo illustration a TikTok logo seen displayed on a smartphone In Brussels - Belgium, Sept. 18, 2022.A new NGO report released Thursday claims TikTok's algorithm targets "vulnerable teens" and recommends "harmful" content to them, sometimes as rapidly as every 27 to 39 seconds., defines harmful content as content about topics like eating disorders, weight-shaming, self-harm, and sexual assault.
"For each account, we recorded the first 30 minutes of algorithmically recommended content on each account's 'For You' feed, watching and liking any videos about body image, mental health or eating disorders. The resulting recordings were analyzed to examine the frequency of recommendations for body image, mental health, selfharm and eating disorder content."
"The harmful content TikTok recommended to the Vulnerable Teen Accounts was more extreme than content shown to the Standard Teen Accounts," the researchers added. "An increase in videos about eating disorders was accompanied by an increase in self-harm and suicide content, which included thinspo, methods to self-harm, and videos of teens discussing plans to commit suicide."
When reached by "Good Morning America," TikTok pushed back on the report, pointing out the study's small sample size and argued researchers' use of the app did not reflect users' real-world behavior patterns and activities on TikTok.
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