14 AGs sue TikTok, alleging the platform knowingly harms children

Attorneys General from 13 states and the District of Columbia have filed separate lawsuits against the social media company TikTok over alleged harm to children.

The lawsuits are part of a broad bipartisan coalition that grew out of a coordinated nationwide investigation into TikTok’s practices.

Attorneys General from California, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington state and Washington, D.C. each filed separate suits.

“Massachusetts will not tolerate a future where companies exploit the vulnerabilities of young people for profit,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said in a press release about the legal action.

TikTok is “driven by greed, designed technology that leads young people to become compulsive and addicted users of the platform, harming their wellbeing and contributing to the ongoing youth mental health crisis across our country,” Campbell said. 

The attorney general for the District of Columbia, Brian Schwalb, called the TikTok platform “digital nicotine,” which, like tobacco, was intentionally designed to make kids addicted. 

Schwalb also alleged TikTok uses a digital currency that helps people exploit children.  

“In addition to prioritizing its profits over the health of children, TikTok’s unregulated and illegal virtual economy allows the darkest, most depraved corners of society to prey upon vulnerable victims,” Schwalb said. 

The lawsuits are the latest in a slew of legal actions taken by the states against Byte Dance, the parent company of TikTok, which many experts allege is under the control of the Chinese communist government.  

Last month, a coalition of 21 states, including some of the states filing suit in this latest action, filed a separate brief asking a federal district court to allow a ban on the company if the social media company maintains its ties to the communist regime in China. 

“TikTok is a valuable tool for conducting corporate and international espionage, and it may allow the Chinese Communist Party to track the real-time locations of public officials, journalists, and other individuals adverse to the Chinese Communist Party’s interests,” the attorneys general stated in the brief, reported the Vicksburg Daily News.  

In Texas this week, Attorney General Ken Paxton also sued TikTok for violations of the state’s parental consent laws, asking for a $10,000 fine for each offense and “injunctive relief.” 

Texas forbids social media companies from sharing, disclosing, or selling a minor’s personal information without permission from the child’s parent or legal guardian. 

“Texas law requires social media companies to take steps to protect kids online and requires them to provide parents with tools to do the same. TikTok and other social media companies cannot ignore their duties under Texas law,” said Paxton in a statement.  

Previously, 45 states and the District of Columbia had asked a state court in Tennessee to order TikTok to cooperate with the investigation launched by Tennessee to discover if the social media company was aware that its policies were knowingly harming children. 

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who filed an amicus brief in the Tennessee case, alleged TikTok was purposefully using an internal messaging application that allowed company messages to be deleted, thereby preventing evidence from being preserved. 

“If TikTok was aware that its app would negatively impact children’s mental health and still chose to participate in behavior that violated consumers’ rights, that is a violation of law. Our office will use every legal tool at our disposal to protect children and conduct our investigation into these allegations,” said Bailey at the time.  

Missouri has not yet filed suit in the latest salvo against TikTok, but given the tenor of the statements from other attorneys general and the great numbers of states interested in the investigation, it’s possible Missouri and other states will follow with lawsuits of their own. 

“We care deeply about building an experience that helps to protect and support the well-being of our community, and appreciate that the state attorneys general are focusing on the safety of younger users,” TikTok said in a statement about the investigations prior to the latest lawsuits, according to the AP. “We look forward to providing information on the many safety and privacy protections we have for teens.”