Topline
Utah became the latest GOP-led state on Tuesday to sue social media giant TikTok amid a wave of criticism over its content moderation and its Chinese parent company ByteDance, claiming the platform “illegally baits children” into addictive and unsafe use, following similar suits in Arkansas and Indiana, as well as a controversial ban in Montana.
Key Facts
In a joint statement released Tuesday, Utah’s Republican Gov. Spencer Cox and Attorney General Sean Reyes accused the social media platform of luring children into unhealthy use on the app, claiming the company “surreptitiously designed and deployed addictive features” to encourage young users to “endlessly” scroll, in an attempt to generate advertising revenue.
Cox and Reyes claim that scrolling on the app for long periods of time “interferes with Utah children’s mental health and well being,” a violation of Utah’s Consumer Sales Practices Act.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit, filed in the state court in Salt Lake City, also claim TikTok “blatantly misrepresents the app’s safety and deceptively portrays itself as independent” of ByteDance.
TikTok has not responded to Forbes’ inquiry for comment, though CEO Shou Zi Chew has repeatedly defended the app, including in a contentious congressional hearing earlier this year when he denied accusations that TikTok provided user data to the Chinese government, arguing the company is “committed” to safeguarding U.S. user information.
Plaintiffs in Utah claim Chew’s claims were “misleading at best,” arguing instead that TikTok “remains heavily controlled by Byte Dance.”
Key Background
Arkansas filed a suit against both TikTok and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, claiming the social media giants deceived users, and specifically that TikTok and ByteDance promote explicit content on the app to minors and have provided “false, deceptive and misleading” claims that user data is not shared with Beijing. In May, Indiana also sued TikTok, though a state judge rejected a court order requested by the state’s GOP Attorney General Todd Rokita that would have kept TikTok from stating on Apple’s App Store that the app does not include “infrequent/mild” or no references to drugs or sexual content for children—Indiana State Judge Craig Bobay ruled the state lacks authority to regulate TikTok’s statements on California-based Apple. Chew, however, defended the platform amid escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing and as the Biden Administration reportedly mulled a potential ban on TikTok. Chew lauded a plan by the company at a high-profile congressional hearing to store U.S. user data in servers owned by Texas tech giant Oracle.
Tangent
In the most sweeping action against the app, Montana’s Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a bill banning the app, preventing people within the state’s border from downloading TikTok, while imposing fines on app stores that offer it. The ban, which is slated to take effect on January 1, is the first of its kind in the U.S., though it has faced heavy pushback from TikTok users, with a group of five users filing a suit challenging the ban June—TikTok covered the legal fees in the case. TikTok also filed a suit against Montana, claiming the ban “unlawfully abridges one of the core freedoms” of the First Amendment.
Further Reading
TikTok Sues Montana After State Passes Law Banning App (Forbes)
Senate Approves Bill Banning TikTok From Federal Devices As GOP Campaign Against Social Media App (Forbes)
Read the full article here