General Discussion

TikTok’s content recommender system and its invasive data collection practices pose a danger to young users of the platform by amplifying depressive and suicidal content that risk worsening existing mental health challenges, two companion reports released today by Amnesty International show.

The two reports –Driven into the Darkness: How TikTok Encourages Self-harm and Suicidal Ideation and the I Feel Exposed: Caught in TikTok’s Surveillance Web -highlight the abuses experienced by children and young people using TikTok, and the ways in which these abuses are caused by TikTok’s recommender system and the underlying business model.

The findings of a joint technical investigation, with our partners – the Algorithmic Transparency Institute (ATI) at the National Conference on Citizenship and AI Forensics – show how children and young people who watch mental health-related content on TikTok’s ‘For You’ page are quickly being drawn into “rabbit holes” of potentially harmful content, including videos that romanticize and encourage depressive thinking, self-harm and suicide.

“The findings expose TikTok’s manipulative and addictive design practices, which are designed to keep users engaged for as long as possible. They also show that the platform’s algorithmic content recommender system, credited with enabling the rapid global rise of the platform, exposes children and young adults with pre-existing mental health challenges to serious risks of harm,” said Lisa Dittmer, Amnesty International Researcher.