TikTok faces new lawsuits filed by 13 US states and the District of Columbia on Tuesday, accusing the popular social media platform of harming young people and failing to protect them.
The lawsuits, filed separately in New York, California, the District of Columbia and 11 other states, expand Chinese-owned TikTok’s legal battle with US regulators and seek new financial penalties against the company.
The United States accuses TikTok of using intentionally addictive software designed to keep children watching video for as long and as often as possible and distorting the effectiveness of content moderation.
“TikTok cultivates social media addiction to boost corporate profits,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “TikTok intentionally targets children because they know that children do not yet have the defenses or ability to create healthy boundaries around addictive content.”
The states say TikTok seeks to maximize the amount of time users spend on the app in order to target them with ads.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said, “Young people are suffering with their mental health due to addiction to social media platforms like TikTok.”
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TikTok said last week that it strongly disputes allegations about its failure to protect children, saying “in fact, we provide strong safeguards for teens and parents.”
Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb alleged that TikTok operated an unlicensed money transfer business through its live streaming and virtual currency features.
“The TikTok platform is dangerous by design. It is a deliberately addictive product, designed to get young people addicted to their screens,” Schwalb said in an interview.
The lawsuit filed in Washington accused TikTok of facilitating the sexual exploitation of underage users, saying TikTok’s live streaming and virtual currency “operate like a virtual strip club without age restrictions.”
Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont and Washington state also filed a lawsuit Tuesday.
In March 2022, eight states, including California and Massachusetts, said they had launched a nationwide investigation into TikTok’s impact on young people.
The US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against TikTok in August for allegedly failing to protect children’s privacy on the app. Other states have previously sued TikTok for failing to protect children from harm, including Utah and Texas. TikTok on Monday rejected the allegations in a lawsuit.
TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, is fighting against a US law that could ban the app in the United States.
—(Reporting by Judy Godoy in New York and David Shepardson in Washington – Prepared by Muhammad for the Arabic Bulletin – Prepared by Muhammad for the Arabic Bulletin) Editing by Jimmy Farid
