FILE – Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., left, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., right speak during a hearing, Oct. 5, 2021, in Washington.
Alex Brandon/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Alex Brandon/AP
A bipartisan pair of senators on Friday requested that TikTok turn over “all documents and information” related to disclosures about child safety on the app that, until recently, were hidden from public view.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) wrote the letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in response to reporting from NPR and Kentucky Public Radio that revealed internal company documents suggesting the company is aware of how the popular service can potentially endanger children.
The bombshell revelations appeared in passages that were supposed to have been redacted in 14 separate state lawsuits filed against TikTok earlier in the week. But in Kentucky, a clerical error allowed the blacked-out portions to be read when copied and pasted into a separate document.
They revealed excerpts from previously-unknown documents, mostly TikTok’s internal communications and presentations, and showed the multibillion-dollar tech firm was aware of a whole host of potential harms to children, although it at times presented information publicly that contradicted internal research.
In their letter, Blumenthal and Blackburn described the reporting as including “shocking revelations” about TikTok’s alleged failure to keep minors safe on the platform. “Rather than address these risks, TikTok instead seemingly misled the public about the safety of its platform,” the senators wrote.
Blumenthal and Blackburn, who co-sponsored the Kids Online Safety Act, which passed in the Senate but stalled in the House, gave TikTok until Oct. 25 to provide the senators with all of the confidential materials it provided to Kentucky authorities before that state’s top attorney, along with 13 others, sued the platform on Oct. 11.
A TikTok spokesman did not return a request for comment about the senators’ request.
But on Thursday, TikTok spokesman Alex Haurek criticized NPR for reporting on information that is now under a court seal, claiming the material “cherry-picks misleading quotes and takes outdated documents out of context to misrepresent our commitment to community safety.”
On Friday, the Oversight Project, a social media watchdog group, said that TikTok has not been honest about how safe children are on the app.
“These unredacted documents prove that TikTok knows exactly what it’s doing to our kids–and the rot goes all the way to the top,” the group wrote on X.