Social media US states sue Tiktok over influence on young people

Tiktok has come under even more pressure in the USA due to lawsuits filed by US states. The accusation: Tiktok had deliberately designed the video platform in such a way that children and young people wanted to spend more and more time there. Tiktok rejected the allegations.

The attorneys general of 13 US states and the capital Washington referred to functions such as the ability to scroll further and further with videos that start automatically. They argued that this makes children in particular addicted to more. They also criticized filters that change the appearance and the spread of so-called challenges, in which users publish videos with sometimes dangerous activities.

Tiktok countered that there are robust safety precautions and restrictions on the time young users spend on the platform.

US government already sued

In August, the US government had already increased the legal pressure on Tiktok with a lawsuit for collecting children's data. The video app and its Chinese parent company Bytedance had made it too easy for children under the age of 13 to open accounts without their parents' consent, according to the US Department of Justice's statement of claim.

Tiktok is already defending itself against a law in the USA that would force a change of ownership. There are fears in US politics that the Chinese government could access American users' data via Bytedance and use the app for propaganda. Tiktok rejects this and went to court in the USA to stop the law.

SDA