New York Lawsuit Accuses TikTok of Giving Users Fake Safety Features That Did Nothing

New York is alleging that TikTok secretly gave thousands of users — including children and teenagers — non-functional “ghost” versions of its safety features, making them believe the tools were working when they were not. The allegations surfaced in October 2026 as part of an updated version of New York’s 2024 lawsuit against TikTok, which was initially filed under seal and later ordered unsealed by a judge.

At the center of the claims is TikTok’s Algo Refresh feature, which is designed to let users reset their content algorithm and potentially avoid harmful material appearing in their feeds. According to Reuters, users placed in TikTok’s experiment believed they had activated the feature, but their feeds did not change — unlike users who received the fully working version. New York’s lawsuit also alleges TikTok misled users about the feature itself, presenting Algo Refresh as a permanent reset rather than a temporary one.

The state claims TikTok ran additional tests of this kind. Bloomberg had reported earlier in 2026 that TikTok allegedly withheld a safety algorithm update from some users in a separate experiment.

A TikTok product manager for Digital Well Being reportedly raised internal concerns about the placebo test, stating: “This feature is about algorithm transparency and control […] A placebo group completely conflicts with that.”

TikTok spokesperson Nathaniel Brown responded with a statement to The Verge: “We continuously make improvements to our platform which means that, like most companies, we regularly test new products and features to validate the experience and understand how they work in the real world.”

The allegations suggest TikTok may have undermined its own stated commitments to user safety and transparency — particularly for younger users — by running experiments that stripped protections without users’ knowledge.