North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein with a bipartisan group of North Carolina attorneys general 12 statesfiled a lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance Ltd. The indictment alleges that the platform causes harm to children and adolescents when designing an addictive app while hid the mental risksemotional and physical that it represents for young users.
“TikTok intentionally created a product that harms childrenand then fooled everyone about how dangerous and addictive it is. They did it to make more money, but they must be honest about the risks and follow the law. “We will take TikTok to court to improve and protect our children,” Stein said.
Main accusations in the lawsuit against TikTok
The lawsuit details a series of harmful practices by TikTok:
- Addictive design: The app is set to hook the youth through features like auto-play, infinite content scrolling, filters, notifications, and recommendations based on custom algorithms.
- False security: TikTok claimed its app was safe for children, even though its own employees knew it was addictive and harmful.
- deception on parents: TikTok promoted the idea of having safety measures, such as screen time management and content moderation, but these do not work as advertised.
Several hours a day on TikTok
More than tens of millions of American teenagers use TikTok daily. A study reveals that the users between 13 and 17 years old They spend almost two hours a day on the platform, with a quarter of these young people using the app for three hours or more. This overuse negatively affects their sleep, attention in school, and family time.
The lawsuit states that the most alarming thing is that TikTok was aware of these problems. Internal documents show that employees warned managers about the dangers of the platform for children, suggesting changes that would improve their safety. However, TikTok refused to make adjustments, as young users are key to its business model.
They ask for economic sanctions against TikTok
Josh Stein and the plaintiff attorneys general seek legal relief including financial penalties and an order to stop TikTok’s illegal practices. This is Stein’s second effort in his fight against social media, after having sued Meta (owner of Facebook and Instagram) in 2023 for similar practices.
The lawsuit against TikTok has joined a series of accusations filed throughout the United States, where attorneys general highlight the negative impact of social networks on the mental health of young people.
At the heart of the controversy is TikTok’s algorithm, which manipulates what users see, feeding a dangerous dependency with infinite content and constant notifications.
Stein is joined in filing this bipartisan lawsuit by the attorneys general of New York, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington, the District of Columbia, and California.
