Blumenthal, Blackburn Demand Answers About TikTok Training Methods

It’s “incredibly disturbing” TikTok and its third-party content moderator have reportedly used child sex abuse material when training employees, Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., wrote TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and Teleperformance CEO Daniel Julien Thursday. Citing reporting from Forbes, the senators demanded answers about the companies reportedly using sexually explicit material involving minors in its training materials. Blumenthal and Blackburn have teamed together on child-safety issues and legislation that recently passed the Senate Commerce Committee (see 2207270057). “By using these explicit images and videos as training materials, not only has Teleperformance subjected content moderators to the most repugnant subject matter imaginable, but it has actively promoted what it ostensibly sought to remove from TikTok,” they wrote. The companies didn’t comment.