Ups! 14 attorneys general sue TikTok
Attorneys general from 14 states and districts have filed lawsuits against TikTok, accusing the platform of harming children’s mental health and deceiving the public about its safety.
This bipartisan group, led by New York’s Letitia James and California’s Rob Bonta, claims that TikTok has violated state laws by fostering social media addiction to increase profits. According to Bonta, TikTok specifically targets children, exploiting their vulnerability and lack of ability to set healthy boundaries around addictive content.
James framed the lawsuits as part of an effort to protect young people and address the nationwide youth mental health crisis.
The lawsuits argue that TikTok’s features and promoted content are harmful to children. The AGs aim to challenge the protections provided by Section 230, which shields platforms from liability for user-generated content.
They accuse TikTok of employing addictive tools like autoplay, temporary live content and stories, beauty filters, and viral challenges—some of which have been linked to serious injuries and deaths among teenagers.
The enforcers claim that TikTok’s actions violate several laws, including the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). They accuse TikTok of profiting from the data of children under 13 due to “deficient policies and practices” that allegedly allowed minors to use the platform. (The Department of Justice has also recently sued TikTok for COPPA violations.)
Additionally, the lawsuits assert that TikTok has misled the public about the safety of its platform for children. For instance, New York’s lawsuit alleges that TikTok violated state consumer protection laws by overstating the strictness of its 60-minute screen time limit, as teens can bypass it by entering a passcode. It also claims TikTok failed to adequately warn users about the risks of beauty filters and falsely portrayed the platform as not aimed at children, despite featuring “child-directed” content.
The lawsuits seek court orders to halt these harmful practices and impose financial penalties. Meanwhile, TikTok faces a more significant threat: a potential ban in the U.S. if it loses its legal challenge to a federal law and does not separate from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
