The teams from TikTok identified the harmful effects of the platform on young users, but limited preventive measures for fear of a drop in the number of users, according to internal documents revealed this Friday 11th by public radio in the state of Kentucky.
The documents were mentioned in the court summons issued by the Kentucky prosecutor with 12 other US states and the Washington DC prosecutor accusing TikTok of harming the mental health of its young users.
Kentucky State Radio rebuilt communications before a state judge ordered the documents removed from public records.
The documents show that TikTok was aware of the attractive power of its platform and its recommendation algorithm, which offers videos in a chain.
“We need to be aware” of the consequences that the algorithm can have on “sleep, nutrition, moving around the room or looking someone in the eye,” wrote a company executive.
In another internal document, TikTok assessed that a user can “become addicted” after 260 videos viewed.
“Compulsive use (of TikTok) is linked to a series of negative effects on mental health, such as the loss of analytical capacity”, and also harms “memory formation, the ability to contextualize, converse and have empathy”, conclude the researchers. researchers from the company itself, according to the documents.
Frequent use of the social network also generates “an increase in anxiety”, according to the same source.
TikTok has added a series of functions to limit the use of the platform by younger users, such as parental controls and stopping after one hour of use.
However, according to the documents, the Chinese subsidiary ByteDance did not attempt to improve this tool, although it was aware of its limited effectiveness.
“Our goal is not to reduce time spent” on the platform, wrote a TikTok project manager. “It is very irresponsible that (public radio) published information protected by law,” commented TikTok in a reaction sent to AFP.
For the platform, the documents were “taken out of context” and cited in a “misleading” way. The company highlights that it has implemented measures to protect minors on its social network.
