TikTok faces over a dozen state lawsuits for allegedly harming teenagers.
State attorneys general have taken a prominent role in lawsuits related to online safety.
A bipartisan group of attorneys general from 14 states and districts has filed a lawsuit against TikTok, accusing it of harming the mental health of young people and misleading the public about the safety of its platform. This group, led by Letitia James of New York and Rob Bonta of California, claims in their lawsuits that the company has violated state laws.
Bonta highlighted that the investigation reveals TikTok promotes social media addiction to increase its profits. According to him, the platform deliberately targets children, who lack the necessary tools to set healthy boundaries against addictive content. Meanwhile, James described these lawsuits as an effort to "protect young people and help combat the youth mental health crisis in the country."
The lawsuits argue that TikTok designed features and promoted harmful content for children, which has partially allowed it to evade the protections offered by Section 230, which shields services from liability for user-generated content. The attorneys general accuse TikTok of implementing addictive features, such as autoplay videos, promoting live content, and showcasing stories that are available for a limited time, in addition to offering beauty filters on videos. Dangerous challenges that have gone viral on the platform and have, in some cases, been linked to teenage deaths are also mentioned.
Authorities allege that these behaviors violate several laws, including the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). They claim that TikTok has gained economic benefits from data of children under 13 due to "poor policies and practices" that allegedly allowed minors to access its service. Furthermore, it is argued that TikTok has misled the public regarding the safety of its platform for children. New York's lawsuit, for example, notes that TikTok violated state consumer protection law by presenting its 60-minute screen time limit as stricter than it actually is, as teenagers can use a passcode to bypass it.
The lawsuits seek to have the courts stop these harmful behaviors and impose financial penalties on the company. TikTok also faces an even greater danger: the possibility of being banned in the United States if it loses a legal dispute related to a federal law and fails to divest from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
A TikTok spokesperson, Alex Haurek, stated that the company "disagrees with these claims, many of which it considers inaccurate and misleading." Haurek added that TikTok is proud of the work it has done to protect teenagers and that they will continue to update and improve their product. He asserted that the company has attempted to collaborate with the group of attorneys general for over two years and that it is "incredibly disappointing" that they have chosen this course of action instead of seeking constructive solutions to industry challenges.
State attorneys general have taken a prominent role in lawsuits against technology platforms for the alleged harm to the safety of minors. For example, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez has sued both Snap and Meta for facilitating the activity of child predators on their platforms. Additionally, several states filed a lawsuit against Meta last year for allegedly misleading the public about the harm it causes to young people.
