Minnesota’s St. Paul.Minnesota filed a lawsuit against TikTok on Tuesday, joining a growing number of states who claim the social media behemoth exploits youth by using algorithms that are so addicting that they become habitual viewers of its brief videos.
Free speech is not at issue here. At a press conference, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison stated, “I’m sure they’re going to holler that.” “In reality, it involves deceit, manipulation, and misrepresentation. This concerns a business that is aware of the hazards and harmful consequences of its product but does nothing to reduce those risks or warn consumers about them.
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TikTok is accused of breaking Minnesota statutes against consumer fraud and misleading business practices in the lawsuit, which was filed in state court. It comes after more than a dozen states filed a wave of lawsuits last year, claiming the well-known short-form video app is made to be addicting and detrimental to children’s mental health.According to Ellison’s office, Minnesota’s case raises the number to roughly 24 states.
A bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from 14 states initiated a statewide inquiry of TikTok’s impact on the mental health of its teenage users in 2022, which led to several of the previous complaints. Democrat Ellison said Minnesota waited to conduct its own inquiry.
Ellison was joined by Sean Padden, a middle school health teacher in the Roseville Area school district, who stated that he has seen a link between rising TikTok usage and an undeniable rise in mental health problems among students, such as anxiety, anger, depression, low self-esteem, and a reduction in attention spans as they pursue the instant satisfaction that the app’s brief videos provide.
Due to worries over the security of the data of its 170 million American users, the lawsuit was filed while President Donald Trump was still attempting to negotiate a deal to take the social media platform—owned by China’s ByteDance—under American control. Since he began posting videos on TikTok, Trump has amassed over 15 million followers, despite his campaign vows to ban the app.
Ellison stated that TikTok must abide by the law regardless of who owns it in the end.
The claims made by Minnesota were refuted by TikTok.
In a statement, company spokesperson Nathaniel Brown stated, “This lawsuit is founded on false and deceptive allegations that ignore the strong safety measures TikTok has voluntarily put in place to promote the welfare of our community.” “Over fifty features and settings are included in teen accounts on TikTok to support safe self-expression, learning, and discovery.
“Parents can view or modify over 20 content and privacy settings, such as screen time, content filters, and our time away feature to pause a teen’s access to our app, through our Family Pairing tool,” Brown continued.
Minnesota is requesting a permanent injunction against TikTok’s practices, a statement that the company’s tactics are unfair, misleading, or unconscionable under state law, and up to $25,000 for each time a Minnesota child has used TikTok. Ellison stated, “It’s a lot,” but he would not provide a figure. According to his estimation, TikTok is installed on the gadgets of hundreds of thousands of children in Minnesota.
Ellison stated, “We are demanding that they clean up their act, but we are not attempting to shut them down.” TikTok and similar products have real applications. However, they must be used appropriately and carefully, just like anything else.
Numerous U.S. states, including Minnesota, have filed lawsuits against Meta Platforms for allegedly incorporating addictive aspects into Facebook and Instagram. Other states have filed lawsuits against the messaging app Snapchat and the game platform Roblox, claiming that they cause harm to children.
