TikTok faces new lawsuits filed by 13 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, widen Chinese-owned TikTok’s legal battle with regulators and seek new financial penalties against the company.
The states accuse TikTok of using intentionally addictive software designed to keep kids watching as long and as often as possible and misrepresenting the effectiveness of its content moderation.
“TikTok cultivates social media addiction to increase corporate profits,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “TikTok deliberately targets children because they know that children don’t yet have the protection or capacity to create healthy boundaries around addictive content.”
TikTok seeks to maximize the amount of time users spend on the app in order to target them with ads, the states say.
“Young people are struggling with their mental health because of addictive social networking platforms like TikTok,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James.
TikTok said last week that it strongly disagrees with claims that it is failing to protect children, saying that “in fact, we provide strong safeguards for teenagers and parents”.
Washington DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb alleged that TikTok operates an unlicensed money streaming business through its live streaming and virtual currency features.
“TikTok’s platform is dangerous by design. It’s an intentionally addictive product that’s 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 TikTok’s live streaming and virtual currency “operate like a virtual strip club with no age restrictions.”
Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont and Washington state also sued on Tuesday.
In March 2022, eight states, including California and Massachusetts, said they were launching a statewide investigation into TikTok’s effects on youth.
The Department of Justice sued TikTok in August for allegedly failing to protect children’s privacy on the app. Other states previously sued TikTok for failing to protect children from harm, including Utah and Texas. TikTok on Monday denied the allegations in a court filing.
TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, is fighting a US law that could ban the app in the US.
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