| Welcome to Bw Daily, the Bloomberg Businessweek newsletter, where we'll bring you interesting voices, great reporting and the magazine's usual charm every weekday. Let us know what you think by emailing our editor here! If this has been forwarded to you, click here to sign up. TikTok's algorithm doesn't know Chase Nasca is dead. More than a year after Nasca killed himself at age 16, his account remains active. Scroll through his For You feed, and you see an endless stream of clips about unrequited love, hopelessness, pain and what many posts glorify as the ultimate escape: suicide. "Take the pain away. Death is a gift," says one video pushed to the account this February, days before the first anniversary of Nasca's death. In another, a male voice says, "I'm going to put a shotgun in my mouth and blow the brains out the back of my head," and a female voice responds: "Cool." The feed looked much the same in the days before Nasca died. On Feb. 13, 2022, it surfaced a video of an oncoming train with the caption "went for a quick lil walk to clear my head." Five days later, Nasca stopped at the Long Island Rail Road tracks that run through the hamlet of Bayport, New York, about half a mile from his house. He leaned his bike against a fence and stepped onto the track, at a blind curve his parents had warned him about since he was old enough to walk. He sent a message to a friend: "I'm sorry. I can't take it anymore." A train rounded the bend, and he was gone. It's impossible to know why Nasca ended his life. There are often multiple factors leading to suicide, and he left no note. But two weeks after his death, his mother, Michelle, started searching his social media accounts, desperate for answers. When she opened the TikTok app on his iPad, she found a library of more than 3,000 videos her son had bookmarked, liked, saved or tagged as a favorite. She could see the terms he'd searched for: Batman, basketball, weightlifting, motivational speeches. And she could see what the algorithm had brought him: many videos about depression, hopelessness and death.  Michelle and Dean Nasca at home with a photo of Chase. Photographer: Kylie Corwin for Bloomberg Businessweek Since TikTok exploded into popular culture in 2018, people have been trying to understand the short-form video platform and its impact on kids. Owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance Ltd., the app reached 1 billion downloads faster than any previous social media product. Its success stems from its stickiness. The algorithm underlying its recommendation engine delivers a carousel of riveting user-created content to keep people staring at their screens. TikTok has become so popular—used by 150 million Americans according to the company—that Silicon Valley rivals are trying to mimic it. And politicians are stoking fears that it could be used as a disinformation tool by the Chinese government. In March, the Biden administration threatened to ban the app—something the Trump administration also threatened to do—if ByteDance doesn't sell its stake. As the political debate carries on, researchers and child psychologists are watching with increasing alarm. Surveys of teens have revealed a correlation between social media and depression, self-harm and suicide. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show nearly 1 in 4 teens said they'd seriously considered killing themselves in 2021, nearly double the level a decade earlier. The American Psychological Association and other authorities pin the blame partly on social media. At a congressional hearing in March, a representative brought up Nasca's death, showing TikTok Chief Executive Officer Shou Chew some of the clips the app had sent the boy and asking if Chew would let his own children watch such content. That same month, Nasca's parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit in New York state court against TikTok, ByteDance and the railroad. TikTok says it can't comment on pending litigation, but a spokeswoman, Jamie Favazza, says the company is committed to the safety and well-being of its users, especially teens. "Our hearts break for any family that experiences a tragic loss," she says. "We strive to provide a positive and enriching experience and will continue our significant investment in safeguarding our platform." Read the whole story on how TikTok has repeatedly pushed devastating messages on vulnerable kids—by Olivia Carville, following up on her previous work on TikTok's dangers. And if you or someone you know needs help with thoughts of suicide or self-harm, a global list of help lines is available here. | 
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