More than a dozen states and DC file lawsuits against TikTok, saying the platform is harming the mental health of teenagers
Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., discusses the House’s focus on bills aimed at countering China’s aggression, the ongoing TikTok debate, Congress facing an upcoming government shutdown deadline and DHS Secretary Mayorkas’ job performance.
A coalition of lawyers from more than a dozen states and Washington, DC, have filed lawsuits against the social media platform TikTok, saying the short video app is designed to hypnotize children and harm the mental health of young users.
Reuters reported that the charges come more than two years after a nationwide investigation into TikTok was launched by several prosecutors in March 2022, including states such as New York, California, the District of Columbia, and 11 other states.
The focus of the cases filed separately centered on TikTok’s algorithm, which determines what users see in their feed.
TikTok’s design features, the lawsuit claims, attract kids to the platform, where they become addicted to the ability to endlessly scroll through content and use facial filters to create unattainable looks.
TEXAS AG SUES TIKTOK FOR ALLEGEDLY SHARING PERSONAL DATA OF MINORS.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against TikTok for allegedly sharing children’s information. (Getty Images)
“TikTok is cultivating social media addiction to increase corporate profits,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said at a press conference in San Francisco on Tuesday. “TikTok deliberately targets children because they know that children don’t yet have the protections or the ability to create healthy boundaries around addictive content.”
TikTok wants to increase the amount of time users spend on the app to target them with ads, the states said.
“Young people are suffering psychologically from addictive social media platforms like TikTok,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James.
About a year ago, several states sued Instagram parent Meta Platforms Inc. both in federal and state courts, for harming young people and contributing to youth mental health problems. The lawsuit alleged that Meta intentionally designed addictive features that kept children hooked on their platforms.
The biggest obstacle for TikTok, however, comes as its presence in the US is questioned.
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California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced on Tuesday that the state has filed a lawsuit against TikTok. (Sarah Reingewirtz/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Under a federal law that took effect earlier this year, TikTok could be banned in the US by mid-January if its parent company, China’s ByteDance, does not sell the platform.
TikTok and ByteDance filed petitions in Washington, challenging the law.
Last month, three judges heard oral arguments in the case and a decision is expected, which may be appealed to the US Supreme Court.
In a lawsuit filed by the District of Columbia, the attorney general called TikTok’s algorithm “dopamine-inducing,” adding that it was created to be addictive. By creating an algorithm, the company could trigger many young users to overuse and keep them on TikTok for hours at a time, the lawsuit said.
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A general view of TikTok’s headquarters in Culver City, Calif. (Photos by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC/Getty Images)
The case also says that TikTok continues to allow the algorithm to addict children, without knowing the behavior displayed by young users can lead to deep psychological and psychological damage such as anxiety, depression, body dysmorphia, depression and other problems.
A TikTok spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the company “strongly disputes” the claims, which they believe are inaccurate and misleading.
“We are proud and deeply committed to the work we have done to protect young people, and we will continue to review and improve our product,” the spokesperson said. “We provide strong protections, proactively remove suspected minor users, and voluntarily introduce safety features such as automatic screen time limits, family pairing, and automatic privacy for children under 16.
“We have been trying to work with the Attorneys General for over two years, and it is very disappointing that they have taken this step rather than work with us in constructively addressing industry-wide challenges,” the spokesperson added.
TIKTOK FILED BY FEDERAL LAW FOR ‘LARGE SCALE’ INVASION OF CHILDREN’S PRIVACY
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against TikTok for allegedly sharing children’s information. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against TikTok saying it shared children’s personal information, violating the state’s parental consent law known as the Protecting Children Online Through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act.
The SCOPE law was established in Texas to protect children from harmful, deceptive and unfair commercial practices of other digital services and prohibits digital service providers, such as TikTok, from sharing, disclosing or selling a child’s personal information without the consent of the child’s parents or guardian.
Paxton accused the social network of failing to use a commercially reasonable method for a parent or guardian to verify their identity, saying that TikTok’s “Family Pairing” method does not verify their identity or relationship with a minor.
The lawsuit also alleges that TikTok illegally shares, discloses and sells the information of known children without obtaining consent from a verified parent.
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Specifically, the lawsuit used the example of a child’s name or username, saying that if someone uses TikTok to search for a known child’s account whose account is set to “public,” TikTok will share and disclose information that identifies the child as a name. , username, profile picture, social media contacts and user content.
In a statement sent to Fox News about Paxton’s case, TikTok said, “We strongly disagree with these allegations, and, in fact, we provide strong protections for youth and parents, including family pairings, all of which are publicly available. We provide protections for families.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
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