Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina and others: a dozen American states sued TikTok claiming that the social network was designed to create addiction in young people and also harm their mental health.
At the center of each lawsuit is the well-known (but virtually unknown) TikTok algorithm, which determines what users see on the platform, populating the feed of For you of personalized content based on people’s interests: the various lawsuits point out that the app would be specifically designed to be as attractive as possible for minors, who would struggle to do without it.
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Similar accusations for Instagram and YouTube
The lawsuits arise from a national investigation into TikToklaunched in March 2022 by a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from many states, including New York, California, Kentucky and New Jersey: “They chose profit over Healthat the safetyal well being and the future of our children – declared the Attorney General of California, Rob Bonta – And we cannot accept this, and that is why we have sued”.
TikTok is not the only company to have come under fire for problems like this: almost a year ago, dozens of states did sued Meta (the company that controls Facebook and Instagram) because his social networks would have damaged young people and their mental health, consciously and deliberately developing addictive functions that keep young people attached to their platforms. Which would be “the way they generate huge advertising revenue – as stated by the Attorney General of the District of Columbia, Brian Schwalb – But unfortunately it is also the way in which they have a negative impact on the mental health of users”. Similar accusations were also made against YouTube, and therefore Google.
The accusations against TikTok
In documents filed Tuesday, the District of Columbia (the geographic area where the city of Washington is located) argued that the algorithm “would favor the production of dopamine” and that it would be designed to be addictive, so that the company could “trap many young users into excessive use and keep them on its app for hours on end.” TikTok would do so despite knowing that these behaviors “will lead to profound psychological and physiological harm, such as anxiety, depression, body dysmorphia, and other long-lasting problems.” Not only that: according to the accusations, teenagers would even be exploited for sexually explicit content through the live streaming function of TikTok, which would have allowed the application to essentially operate as a “virtual strip club” without any age restrictions; according to lawyers, the profit that the company obtains from financial transactions would allow it to profit from exploitation.
The 14 attorneys general explained that the goal of the legal actions would be to prevent TikTok from using these featuresimpose financial penalties for alleged illegal practices and collect information on harm caused to users. In a statement, the company said it was disappointed the lawsuits were filed after two years of working with state attorneys general to resolve the issues: “We strongly disagree with these claims, many of which we believe are inaccurate and misleading.” – he declared Alex Haurek, a spokesperson for TikTok – We are proud and remain deeply committed to the work we have done to protect teens and will continue to update and improve our product.”
Already today, the app is not accessible to children under 13 years of age and limits the visibility of some content to children under 18, but several US states said in their documents that they had evidence that children could “easily circumvent these restrictions”, allowing them to access the service used by adults. Which, however, in all honesty, is a problem that affects more or less all social platforms, it is a problem of poor supervision of what minors do online and it is a problem that their families should take care of.
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What will happen to TikTok in the US?
It must also be taken into account that, specifically for TikTok, these new accusations fit into a larger and more worrying picture: based on a federal law that went into effect last springthe app could be banned from the United States by mid-January if ByteDance (the Chinese company that controls it) does not sell its operations on American soil to an American company. Both TikTok and ByteDance have appealed against this law and the ruling of the Washington court is awaited, which can however be appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States.
TikTok is very, very used in the USA (around 170 million users), as are many other social networks, especially among very young people: according to the Pew Research Centernearly all U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 say they use a social media platform, and about a third say they do so “almost constantly.” Conversely, high school students who frequently use social media would more often experience persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, according to a recent CDC investigation conducted on approximately 20 thousand adolescents.
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