Indiana’s attorney general sued TikTok on Wednesday, claiming the Chinese-owned company exposes minors to inappropriate content and makes user data accessible to China, in one of the strongest moves against the social media giant taken by a state.
Indiana’s lawsuit argues that TikTok “routinely exposes” consumers’ data “to access and exploitation by the Chinese Government and Communist Party,” partly through ByteDance’s ownership of the app, and misleads users about how safe their data is. Rokita’s office argues that TikTok’s assurances that data is not being sent to China are false, saying the data the app collects can be accessed by people and companies subject to Chinese law, including ByteDance.
At the same time, TikTok, which requires users to enter an age of 13 or older to create an account, has short videos on everything including hallucinogenic mushrooms and bondage. The lawsuit cites lyrics of various popular songs, such as Cardi B’s hit “WAP” and dance moves including twerking as evidence that the platform contains content inappropriate for young teens.
Just typing the first two letters of certain TikTok trends will bring up search prompts for explicit content, the suit notes, often offering videos categorized under tags that are misspelled to avoid triggering the app’s content bans. Further, a mode in the app meant to restrict younger users from seeing vulgar videos is ineffective, still serving sexual content in response to searches, the Indiana attorney general’s office argues.
The lawsuit also raises concerns about how the platform polices videos related to child pornography, rape fantasies and abuse. Citing, the state alleges that users get around TikTok’s policy banning sexual or exploitative content by uploading content showing child sex abuse to private accounts and then distributing the log-in information so others can log in and view it.
On its website, TikTok says it is “deeply committed to ensuring the safety of minors” and prohibits any videos relating to child sexual exploitation or endangerment. Such videos are “subject to intervention from law enforcement,” the company says.
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