Minnesota suing TikTok for allegedly preying on young people with addictive algorithms | Latest Tech News
Minnesota on Tuesday joined a wave of states suing TikTok, alleging the social media giant preys on young people with addictive algorithms that lure them into changing into compulsive shoppers of its short videos.
“This isn’t about free speech. I’m sure they’re gonna holler that,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said at a news convention. “It’s actually about deception, manipulation, misrepresentation. This is about a company knowing the dangers, and the dangerous effects of its product, but making and taking no steps to mitigate those harms or inform users of the risks.”
The lawsuit, filed in state court, alleges that TikTok is violating Minnesota legal guidelines against misleading commerce practices and shopper fraud. It follows a flurry of lawsuits filed by more than a dozen states last 12 months alleging the favored short-form video app is designed to be addictive to children and harms their mental health. Minnesota’s case brings the entire to about 24 states, Ellison’s workplace said.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison briefs reporters in his workplace about the lawsuit he filed against social media giant TikTok, alleging it preys on young people with addictive algorithms. AP
Many of the earlier lawsuits stemmed from a nationwide investigation into TikTok launched in 2022 by a bipartisan coalition of attorneys common from 14 states into the consequences of TikTok on young customers’ mental health. Ellison, a Democrat, said Minnesota waited while it did its own investigation.
Sean Padden, a middle-school health instructor in the Roseville Area faculty district, joined Ellison, saying he has witnessed a correlation between elevated TikTok use and an “irrefutable spike in student mental health issues,” including depression, anxiety, anger, lowered shallowness and a lower in consideration spans as they search out the short gratification that its short videos offer.
The lawsuit comes while President Donald Trump is still attempting to broker a deal to carry the social media platform, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, under American possession over issues about the data security of its 170 million American customers. While Trump campaigned on banning TikTok, he also gained more than 15 million followers on the platform since he began sharing videos on it.
No matter who in the end owns TikTok, Ellison said, it must comply with the law.
The lawsuit comes as Trump is attempting to make a deal with TikTok to carry the platform to the U.S. AP
TikTok disputed Minnesota’s allegations.
“This lawsuit is based on misleading and inaccurate claims that fail to recognize the robust safety measures TikTok has voluntarily implemented to support the well-being of our community,” company spokesperson Nathaniel Brown said in a assertion. “Teen accounts on TikTok come with 50+ options and settings designed to help young people safely specific themselves, uncover and study.
TikTok disputed Minnesota’s allegations. AP
“Through our Family Pairing tool, parents can view or customize 20+ content and privacy settings, including screen time, content filters, and our time away feature to pause a teen’s access to our app,” Brown added.
Minnesota is searching for a declaration that TikTok’s practices are misleading, unfair or unconscionable under state law, a everlasting injunction against those practices, and up to $25,000 for each occasion in which a Minnesota little one has accessed TikTok. Ellison wouldn’t put a whole on that but said, “it’s a lot.” He estimated that “hundreds of thousands of Minnesota kids” have TikTok on their devices.
“We’re not trying to shut them down, but we are insisting that they clean up their act,” Ellison said. “There are legitimate uses of products like TikTok. But like all things, they have to be used properly and safely.”
Minnesota is also among dozens of U.S. states that have sued Meta Platforms for allegedly building options into Instagram and Facebook that addict people. The messaging service Snapchat and the gaming platform Roblox are also going through lawsuits by some other states alleging hurt to children.
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