TikTok sued by 13 states and DC, accused of harming younger users

TikTok is facing new lawsuits filed by 13 US states and the District of Columbia on Tuesday, accusing the popular social media platform of harming and failing to protect young people.

The lawsuits, filed separately in New York, California, the District of Columbia and 11 other states, extend China-owned TikTok’s legal battle with US regulators and seek new financial sanctions against the company.

The states accuse TikTok of intentionally using addictive software designed to get kids to watch as much and as often as possible, and of misrepresenting the effectiveness of content moderation.

“TikTok cultivates social media addiction to increase corporate profits,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “TikTok intentionally targets children because they know children don’t yet have the defenses or ability to create healthy boundaries around addictive content.”

TikTok is trying to maximize the time users spend on the app to target them with ads, states say.

“Young people are struggling with their mental health because of social media platforms like TikTok that are addictive,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James.

TikTok said on Tuesday that it strongly disagreed with the claims, “many of which we believe to be inaccurate and misleading,” and that it was disappointed that states chose to sue “instead of working with us on constructive solutions to challenges at the of industry”.

TikTok offers safety features, including default screen time limits and default privacy settings for minors under 16, the company said.

Washington DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb alleged that TikTok is operating an unlicensed money transmission business through its live streaming and virtual currency features.

“The TikTok platform is dangerous by design. It is an intentionally addictive product that is designed to get young people addicted to their screens,” Schwalb said in an interview.

The Washington lawsuit accused TikTok of facilitating the sexual exploitation of underage users, saying that TikTok’s live stream and virtual currency “operate as a virtual strip club with no age restrictions.”

Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont and Washington state sued on Tuesday.

In March 2022, eight states, including California and Massachusetts, said they had launched a nationwide probe into TikTok’s impact on youth.

The US Department of Justice sued TikTok in August for 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 denied the allegations in a court filing on Monday.

TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, is fighting a US law that could ban the app in the United States.

(Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Jamie Freed and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)