Fourteen US states filed lawsuits against the platform on Tuesday TikTokwhich they accuse of trapping young users with addictive features, then damaging their minds and violating their privacy.
The wave of lawsuits in local courts, demanding corrective measures and financial sanctions, comes at a time when the popular short video application is at risk of being suspended in the United States if it does not change its owner, currently the Chinese company ByteDance.
“Our investigation revealed that TikTok cultivates social media addiction to increase profits,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a press release.
“TikTok intentionally targets children because it knows that children do not yet have the defenses or ability to impose healthy limits on addictive content,” he added.
Features like beauty filters, infinite scrolling from one video to the next, auto-playing videos and “likes” exploit youthful curiosity and lack of willpower to stop, Bonta maintains.
TikTok then bombards young users with ads to make money, the lawsuits allege.
TikTok called the claims inaccurate and misleading.
“We have been committed to working with the attorneys general for more than two years, and it is incredibly disappointing that they have taken this step instead of working with us on constructive solutions to industry-wide challenges,” said TikTok spokesperson Michael Hughes, consulted by AFP.
Hughes cited TikTok “safeguards” that include measures such as banning users suspected of being under 13, limits on screen time and privacy settings for minors.
“Young people are facing mental health issues due to addictive social media platforms like TikTok,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James. “TikTok claims that its platform is safe for young people, but that is far from true,” he added.
TikTok is trying to stop the threat of a ban in the United States, where it has 170 million users, in court. A law set to take effect early next year forces its Chinese owners to sell the app to avoid suspension.
Washington maintains that ByteDance can and does agree to requests from the Chinese government for data on American users, and that the group bows to pressure to censor or promote certain content on the platform.
TikTok and Beijing deny these allegations.