TikTok staffers privately raised concerns over the wildly popular app’s impact on mental health — despite the company’s public claims that it’s safe for kids and teens, according to newly unsealed videos.
Current and former TikTok employees admitted to discomfort with the China-owned app’s algorithm and its tendency to push unhealthy content to kids — including “disordered eating behavior,” according to videos submitted as evidence in a major legal case brought by multiple US states.
In videos presented in the lawsuit led by the state of North Carolina, Ashlen Sepulveda, who worked in trust and safety before leaving TikTok in 2021, said it “keeps me up at night.”
A group of state attorneys general has argued TikTok was designed to be “highly addictive to minors.” Christopher Sadowski“The more that a user looks up things about, like fitness or like diet, it turns into losing weight, and then, soon enough, the entire feed of this user is like soft disordered eating behavior that is being discussed by their peers with no opportunity to remove themselves from that,” she said.
The videos were obtained during an investigation after North Carolina’s then-Attorney General Josh Stein and a group of other state attorneys general sued TikTok last year, alleging that TikTok was designed to be “highly addictive to minors”.
TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, had asked to keep the video sealed for its employees’ privacy. But North Carolina Superior Court Judge Adam Conrad on Tuesday denied that request as well as TikTok’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
During internal meetings, current and former TikTok employees shared their unease with the app’s algorithm. REUTERSConrad wrote that “the employees’ association with the case may entail some embarrassment, but that alone does not outweigh the public’s right of access.”
A TikTok spokesperson argued that the platform has rolled out several safety features in recent years, like privacy settings for teens, disabling late-night notifications and a guided meditation that interrupts scrolling time.
“Since the launch of the app, we have steadfastly created a robust trust and safety track record, with 70+ features and settings designed specifically to support the safety and well-being of teens and families on TikTok, which the AG has chosen to deliberately ignore,” the spokesperson told The Post in a statement.
In the unsealed videos, however, TikTok executives told a different story.
Alexandra Evans, who led TikTok’s safety public policy team in Europe before leaving in 2022, said “the reason why kids watch TikTok is that the (algorithm) is really good.”
The internal TikTok meetings were included in a video compilation as evidence in the North Carolina lawsuit. Drobot Dean – stock.adobe.com“I think we need to be cognizant of what it might mean for other opportunities. And when I say opportunities, I literally mean sleep and eating and moving around the room and looking at somebody in the eyes.”
Brett Peters, TikTok’s current head of creator advocacy, added: “We have these expectations and goals, and they’re not necessarily congruent with good mental health.”
“Literally, that’s like why we’re all here is to help continue to diversify the content ecosystem, to make TikTok a place where you can get so much different types of content that you never want to leave,” Peters said.
“We do, in a way, encourage some of this content being put up just because of the way the platform is designed. And sometimes I worry about that.”
A TikTok spokesperson argued that the platform has rolled out several safety features in recent years. REUTERSNicholas Chng, who worked on risk detection at TikTok before leaving last year, added, “Unfortunately, some of the stuff that people find interesting are not always the most healthy.”
The lawsuit is seeking financial penalties and a court order banning TikTok from “engaging in the unfair or deceptive acts and practices” described in the complaint.
“These clips clearly show that social media companies know they’re designing their apps to hook our children even at the expense of their health. That’s why the company fought so hard to keep the video out of the public eye,” North Carolina’s current attorney general Jeff Jackson told The Post.
The lawsuit comes as TikTok stares down a potential ban in the US, after earlier this year going dark for just one day as President Trump pushes ByteDance to sell the app to an American entity.
The complaint alleges that TikTok fails “to tell young users and parents what their executives and employees know about the harms caused by increased screen time … that it ‘interferes with essential personal responsibilities like sufficient sleep, work/school responsibilities, and connecting with loved ones.’”
Meanwhile, the White House launched an official account on TikTok this week.
