Court Filing Alleges TikTok's 'Algo Refresh' Safety Feature Didn't Work as Described
Newly unsealed court documents in New York's ongoing lawsuit against TikTok, reported on October 7, allege the platform gave some users — including teens — a non-working version of its 'Algo Refresh' feature, which is supposed to let users reset their recommendation feed when they want to escape loops of harmful or distressing content. The original complaint, filed in 2024, already argued the feature failed to work as TikTok described. These are unproven allegations in active litigation; TikTok says it regularly tests features to understand how they work.
What to do
Algo Refresh is a self-managed control teens activate themselves — not a parental lock. For parental controls that don't depend on teen opt-in, use TikTok's Family Pairing to set screen time limits and content restrictions directly.
Source · ag.ny.gov
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Last updated · Oct 19, 2026
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