Thirteen states and the District of Columbia have filed new cases against TikTok, saying that the social media site “clearly targets children” with features that are too addicting.
Thirteen states, including New York, California, DC, and 11 others, sued TikTok on Tuesday, saying that the app hurts and doesn’t protect young people.
The claims say that the Chinese-owned company used addiction-inducing software on purpose to make sure that young people watched as much and as often as possible. It also says that the social media app lied about how well its content filtering worked.
Besides New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, and Washington state, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, and New Jersey also sued on Tuesday.
Gov. Rob Bonta, the attorney general of California, said in a comment, “TikTok encourages social media addiction to boost business profits.” TikTok specifically targets kids because they know that they don’t have the skills or reflexes to set healthy limits around content that is addicting yet.”
The state said that TikTok wants to get people to spend as much time as possible on the app so that they can show them ads.
“Young people are having mental health problems because of how addicting social media sites like TikTok are,” said Letitia James, the attorney general of New York.
When asked about the claims, the company said, “We strongly disagree. In fact, we offer robust protection for kids and parents.”
AG Brian Schwalb of Washington, D.C., has said that the social media app’s live streaming and virtual currency is used as an illegal money transfer business.
“The way TikTok works makes it dangerous by design. The product is meant to be addicting and is meant to get young people hooked on their computers,” he said.
The District of Columbia’s case also says that TikTok enables the sexual abuse of minors through its live streaming and virtual currency features, which “work like a virtual strip club without any age limits.”
In August, the Justice Department sued TikTok, saying that they did not do enough to protect kids’ privacy on their app.
Author: Steven Sinclaire
