Search tiktok

Following in the footsteps of Nebraska, the Attorneys General of North Carolina, California, and New Jersey filed complaints against TikTok and its owner, ByteDance, Ltd., on October 8, 2024.

The suits are lengthy and full of allegations against TikTok and how it is responsible for a “profound mental health crisis” of American teenagers. The suits allege that TikTok designed its social media platform to target youth and “manipulates them into habitual use, and mines the data produced by their excessive and compulsive use for more and more profit.”

The New Jersey complaint alleges that, for American youth, there are no limits on its use and that it is designed to promote excessive use. On the other hand, the Chinese equivalent of TikTok, known as Douyin, “limits which hours in the day young users can access it and for how long. Chinese youth are required to wait through a five-second pause between videos when they spend too much time on Douyin. Some are limited to 40 minutes of use per day.” This revelation is telling—the Chinese version of TikTok requires limitations on use by young users but does not restrict and, in fact, encourages unhealthy levels of use for American youth.

The complaints each outline in detail how TikTok lured Americans between 13 and 17 to become users and how TikTok designed its platform “to promote excessive, compulsive, and addictive use” and achieved young users’ usage to “almost constantly.” The complaints all outline how the use of TikTok by young users has been harmful to them. California alleges that “TikTok designs and provides beauty filters that it knows harm its young users” and that “encourage unhealthy, negative social comparison-which, in turn, can cause body image issues and related mental and physical disorders.” In addition, it alleges that “the platform’s addictive qualities, and the resulting excessive use by minors, harms those minors’ mental and physical health. Among the harms suffered by TikTok’s younger users are abnormal neurological changes, insufficient sleep, inadequate socialization with others, and increased risk of mood disorders such as depression and anxiety.”  If that isn’t enough to get off TikTok, I don’t know what is. The federal government and some state governments prohibit employees from using TikTok. Montana attempted to prohibit its use and was sued by TikTok. In a rare bipartisan move, Congress passed—and President Biden signed—legislation prohibiting TikTok from use in the U.S. That law is being challenged in litigation by TikTok, a Chinese-based platform, on First Amendment grounds. Now, four state Attorneys General are sounding the alarm about the harmful effects on youth in our country when using TikTok. How much is enough for people to understand the national security threat that TikTok poses and the threat it poses to our children?

We have previously outlined the risks of using TikTok, the federal and state governments’ ban on it, and the national security risks it presents.

In doing so, we primarily focused on data privacy and security threats to TikTok users. Recently, Nebraska and the U.S. Department of Justice each sued TikTok directly for different allegations relevant to the use of TikTok by children. The allegations made in the complaints are heartbreaking and detailed below.

State of Nebraska Complaint

The complaint against TikTok in Nebraska, led by the state Attorney General’s consumer protection division, details how TikTok is marketed to young children and self-acclaimed as “addicting.” Internal documents obtained show that the owners of TikTok purposefully market its use to children under the age of 13 as they lack the executive  decision-making ability to limit its use. This excessive use of TikTok is precisely what the app’s owners are striving to achieve. Young TikTok users admit they are addicted, and statistics show that they use TikTok into the wee hours of the morning. Even more disturbing is the content that TikTok appears to be purposefully pushing to young children—harmful content, including “mature and inappropriate content, content related to eating disorders, sadness and suicide, and pornography.” On top of that, the complaint alleges that it is “incredibly difficult” to delete an account.

The complaint alleges that TikTok is harmful and dangerous to children and youth, including “increased rates of depression, anxiety, loneliness, low self-esteem, and suicide, interfering with sleep and education, fueling body dysmorphia and eating disorders, and contributing to youth addiction.” The complaint alleges that TikTok: is misrepresenting that it is safe for use; is engaging in deceptive and unfair acts and practices in violation of the Nebraska Consumer Protection Act and Deceptive Trade Practice Act; and has false or misleading statements in its privacy policy. The complaint seeks injunctive relief, civil fines and penalties, and disgorgement of all profits made in Nebraska.

We will be watching this litigation closely, including other states that may follow suit.

Department of Justice Complaint

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has also recently filed suit against TikTok. The DOJ’s suit concentrates on TikTok’s alleged violations of the federal statute known as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The allegations in the complaint detail how TikTok allows children under the age of 13 to register for a TikTok account that is not in “Kids Mode” and can easily evade the platform’s processes to determine the user’s age. Further, a user under the age of 13 can open an account without parental consent or through Instagram or Google, which the DOJ alleges is a violation of COPPA.

Similar to allegations outlined in Nebraska’s complaint, the DOJ complaint outlines how TikTok makes it very difficult to delete accounts and has “obstructed and failed to honor” parents’ request for deletion and return of their children’s account, personal information, and data collected by the app. The complaint alleges that TikTok failed to delete and continued to collect data from children despite deletion requests from parents. According to the complaint, TikTok retains users’ data “long after purportedly deleting their accounts.”

The complaint alleges that TikTok has insufficient internal policies to flag underage users and that TikTok does not follow its own policies to monitor the platform for underage users, thereby allowing “millions of children” under the age of 13 to be able to use the platform without parental consent in violation of COPPA.

The DOJ complaint further alleges that TikTok has violated the 2019 consent order entered into by TikTok and the Federal Trade Commission by not maintaining records evidencing compliance with its terms. It further alleges that TikTok misrepresented its remedial conduct by failing to ensure that all U.S.-based accounts were routed through an age gate and that it had deleted children’s data in May of 2020. TikTok later admitted that the representation was false.

The DOJ seeks injunctive relief, fines, and penalties for TikTok’s violation of COPPA. If you are a parent whose child is using TikTok, take a look at the complaints. They will give you details of how harmful using TikTok is for your child, and TikTok’s lack of adherence to its own processes to minimize its use by young children.

Nebraska recently filed suit against TikTok, and the details of the harms associated with using TikTok by children are outlined in the complaint. Although the complaint seeks redress only for Nebraskans, the allegations are relevant to parents in all states.

We expect our state and federal governments to make laws that protect children from the sale and marketing of harmful products, such as alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and pornography. According to allegations by the Nebraska Attorney General, using TikTok is just as harmful to the health and well-being of children as alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. The use of TikTok by children is addicting. TikTok knows it, and it is marketing specifically to children because they are unable to understand dangers of its use. TikTok is not restricting the content that children can view, including  “mature and inappropriate content, content related to eating disorders, sadness and suicide, and pornography.” Parents: you can’t rely on TikTok to protect your child, particularly after reading Nebraska’s complaint. Take a hard look at the complaint so you can understand how TikTok is harming your child.—

TikTok has reported that it is responding to a cyber attack targeting a limited number of known brands and celebrity accounts. The BBC has identified that Paris Hilton’s account as being targeted, but TikTok says it was not compromised.

The BBC identified CNN as a victim whose account was successfully attacked. TikTok is working with CNN and other affected users to restore access to their accounts.

To add to TikTok’s legal woes in the U.S., Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers (AG) filed suit against TikTok on May 22, 2024, alleging that TikTok violated Nebraska’s consumer protection laws and engaged in deceptive trade practices by “designing and operating a platform that is addictive and harmful to teens and children.” In addition, the AG alleges that “TikTok’s features fail to protect kids and regularly expose underage users to age-inappropriate and otherwise harmful content.”

The AG alleges that the use of TikTok by children in Nebraska “has fueled a youth mental health crisis in Nebraska.” The AG further alleges that TikTok is “addictive, that compulsive use is rampant, and that its purported safety features, such as age verification and parental controls, are grossly ineffective.”

The AG filed suit after his office conducted an investigation into TikTok’s practices, which included creating TikTok accounts of fictitious minors. According to the AG, TikTok’s algorithm directed the fictitious minors to inappropriate content “within minutes” of opening an account.

TikTok denies the allegations. We will continue to follow and update our readers on developments in the TikTok debate.

As threatened, TikTok, Inc. and ByteDance, Ltd., the owner of the TikTok app, filed suit against the United States on May 7, 2024, alleging that the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (“the Act”) is unconstitutional and is a violation of the free speech of 170 million Americans who use the app. 

The 77-page petition, filed in the U. S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, alleges that ByteDance is unable to divest TikTok, that such “is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally. And certainly not on the 270 -day timeline required by the Act.”

The petitioners allege that divesting the U.S. TikTok platform is not commercially viable and would “dramatically undermine the value and viability of the U.S. TikTok business.” In addition, the petitioners allege that moving TikTok’s source code from ByteDance to a new owner would require that the code be moved to an alternative team of engineers, which would “take years.” They also allege that the Chinese government will not permit a divestment of the algorithms that are at the heart of TikTok as “the Chinese government clearly signaled that it would assert its export control powers with respect to any attempt to sever TikTok’s operations from ByteDance,” That affirmation alone is worthy of why the Act is so important for national security. The Chinese government will not allow the algorithms being used on the TikTok platform, which is used to suggest a review of content and are arguably manipulative, to be divested and, therefore, out of its potential purview and control.

The petition alleges that the Act is a violation of the First Amendment, is an unconstitutional bill of attainder, a violation of Article I of the U.S. Constitution, and a violation of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process and Takings Clauses. The relief requested includes a declaratory judgment that the Act violates the U.S. Constitution, an order enjoining the Attorney General from enforcing the Act, and a judgment in favor of petitioners.

For TikTok users, the law is applicable unless a Court rules otherwise. Transitioning away from TikTok while the issue moves through litigation is one way to respond to the Act and the subsequent dispute. There are other social media platforms to use that are not deemed a national security threat by the federal government.

President Biden signed a historical aid package into law on Tuesday that includes aid for Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific region. The package also includes a bill increasing sanctions on Russian assets and requiring TikTok owner ByteDance to sell TikTok within 270 days or risk that the app will not be available through app stores or Internet hosting services in the U.S.

The bipartisan bill, entitled “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” classifies TikTok as a foreign adversary-controlled application, which has been confirmed by the FBI and the Five Eyes [see previous blog posts on TikTok here]. TikTok, owned by a foreign adversary, has access to over 170 million Americans’ microphones, cameras, location, contacts, and moment-to-moment movement. It is essentially spyware.

ByteDance vows to sue. How contradictory. A foreign adversary suing for its constitutional rights in the U.S.

Yesterday, with broad bipartisan support, the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly (352-65) to support the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, designed to begin the process of banning TikTok’s use in the United States. This is music to my ears. See a previous blog post on this subject.

The Act would penalize app stores and web hosting services that host TikTok while it is owned by Chinese-based ByteDance. However, if the app is divested from ByteDance, the Act will allow use of TikTok in the U.S.

National security experts have warned legislators and the public about downloading and using TikTok as a national security threat. This threat manifests because the owner of ByteDance is required by Chinese law to share users’ data with the Chinese Communist government. When downloading the app, TikTok obtains access to users’ microphones, cameras, and location services, which is essentially spyware on over 170 million Americans’ every move, (dance or not).

Lawmakers are concerned about the detailed sharing of Americans’ data with one of its top adversaries and the ability of TikTok’s algorithms to influence and launch disinformation campaigns against the American people. The Act will make its way through the Senate, and if passed, President Biden has indicated that he will sign it. This is a big win for privacy and national security.

The bill that passed in the U.S. House of Representatives potentially banning TikTok’s use in the U.S. is not a novel idea. The federal government has already banned TikTok’s use for federal employees, some states have banned its use for state employees, and the state of Montana has attempted to ban its use in the state, which was litigated by ByteDance and is presently on appeal. Other countries have banned the use of TikTok over similar concerns without the uproar levied by users in the U.S. Perhaps users in other countries are more sophisticated or care more about national security and privacy concerns than users in the U.S.

The Washington Post published an article on March 13, 2024, that outlines other countries that have already banned TikTok from certain use. They include India, Nepal, European Union, Canada, Britain, Australia, Taiwan, New Zealand, Pakistan, Afghanistan (yes, even the Taliban banned TikTok in 2022 to “prevent the younger generation from being misled”), and Somalia.

The article is a very interesting read and shows that the concern over the intent of the Chinese Communist Party as it relates to TikTok is global. Encourage your Senators to adopt the House bill banning TikTok in the U.S. unless ByteDance divests the app, so it can be sent to President Biden for signature.

Montana’s legislature last year passed legislation, signed by the Governor, to ban the use of TikTok within the borders of the state, seeking to protect Montana consumers’ personal information and limit spying by the Chinese government through TikTok.

Some Montana users sued Montana to block the ban. A federal judge in Montana issued a preliminary injunction blocking the ban that was set to start on January 1, 2024. On January 2, 2024, the state filed a notice to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Montana’s ban of the use of TikTok in the state by anyone was more expansive than previous bans by the federal government and other states prohibiting its use by federal and state employees.

We have repeatedly written about the risks and concerns about consumers’ use of TikTok. Its use continues to be a national security threat, and Montana’s appeal is one we will be watching closely.