Indiana has sued the popular social media platform TikTok over allegations it fails to protect children from mature content, and that it deceived users about the Chinese government's ability to access their data.
Indiana has sued the popular social media platform TikTok over allegations it fails to protect children from mature content, and that it deceived users about the Chinese government's ability to access their data.
The two lawsuits, filed Wednesday in Allen County court, mark the first time a state has sued the platform,“The TikTok app is a malicious and menacing threat unleashed on unsuspecting Indiana consumers by a Chinese company that knows full well the harms it inflicts on users,” Indiana Attorney General Rokita said in a prepared statement. “With this pair of lawsuits, we hope to force TikTok to stop its false, deceptive and misleading practices, which violate Indiana law.
IndyStar has asked ByteDance, TikTok's Beijing-based parent company, to respond to the lawsuits. Both TikTok and ByteDance are listed as defendants. The lawsuits list TikTok's headquarters in California.
The other lawsuit says the platform has a 12-plus age rating in the Apple App Store and a teen rating in the Google Play Store, yet TikTok has an algorithm in place that"force-feeds" inappropriate content to children. That content still filters through to users even if they've turned on"Restricted Mode," which is supposed to limit mature content, according to the lawsuit.
Rokita's office is asking for the court to force TikTok to pay $5,000 in penalties for every violation of the state's Deceptive Consumer Sales Act, among other fees. It's also asking the court to bar the company from"continuing to make misrepresentations" about the security of Indiana consumer data, and about the app's"Restricted Mode."
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