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Incident 286: TikTok’s "For You" Allegedly Pushed Fatal “Blackout” Challenge Videos to Two Young Girls

Description: TikTok’s recommendation algorithm was alleged in a lawsuit to have intentionally and repeatedly pushed videos of the “blackout” challenge onto children’s feeds, incentivizing their participation which ultimately resulted in the death of two young girls.

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Alleged: TikTok developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed Lalani Erika Renee Walton , Arriani Jaileen Arroyo , Lalani Erika Renee Walton's family , Arriani Jaileen Arroyo's family , TikTok young users and TikTok users.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
286
Report Count
3
Incident Date
2021-02-26
Editors
Khoa Lam
Applied Taxonomies
GMF, MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
 

1.2. Exposure to toxic content

Risk Domain

The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
 
  1. Discrimination and Toxicity

Entity

Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
 

AI

Timing

The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
 

Post-deployment

Intent

Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
 

Unintentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Incident Occurrence+1
Families sue TikTok after girls died while trying ‘blackout challenge’
TikTok self-harm study results ‘every parent’s nightmare’
Families sue TikTok after girls died while trying ‘blackout challenge’

Families sue TikTok after girls died while trying ‘blackout challenge’

theguardian.com

Parents Sue TikTok, Saying Children Died After Viewing ‘Blackout Challenge’

Parents Sue TikTok, Saying Children Died After Viewing ‘Blackout Challenge’

nytimes.com

TikTok self-harm study results ‘every parent’s nightmare’

TikTok self-harm study results ‘every parent’s nightmare’

theguardian.com

Families sue TikTok after girls died while trying ‘blackout challenge’
theguardian.com · 2022

The families of two young girls who allegedly died as a result of a viral TikTok challenge have sued the social media platform, claiming its “dangerous” algorithms are to blame for their children’s deaths.

Parents of two girls who died in a…

Parents Sue TikTok, Saying Children Died After Viewing ‘Blackout Challenge’
nytimes.com · 2022

The parents of two girls who said their children died as a result of a “blackout challenge” on TikTok are suing the company, claiming its algorithm intentionally served the children dangerous content that led to their deaths.

The girls were…

TikTok self-harm study results ‘every parent’s nightmare’
theguardian.com · 2022

TikTok’s recommendation algorithm pushes self-harm and eating disorder content to teenagers within minutes of them expressing interest in the topics, research suggests.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) found that the video-shar…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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