By Gavin Boyle
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall revealed a lawsuit against TikTok’s parent company ByteDance for exploiting children and intentionally targeting them with addictive content.
“Today we join concerned parents across our state to stand up for Alabama’s children,” Marshall said. “TikTok preys on young people, feeding them dangerous and damaging content while lying to parents about how safe the app really is.”
“The platform was designed to addict kids and put profits ahead of the mental health of an entire generation,” he continued. “TikTok’s so-called ‘safety features’ are a joke. They are nothing more than a marketing ploy to trick parents into trusting a product that TikTok knows full well is dangerous. Alabama families deserve the truth, and we will make sure they get it.”
The Attorney General specifically highlighted the platform’s algorithm which targets users with videos specifically tailored for them. This algorithm is on by default, and there’s no way to completely turn off. Furthermore, the algorithm feeds people content solely with a focus on keeping them on the app, even if it will harm them in some way.
“There is self-harm content, there is nonsensical content about cures for mental health [conditions],” Imran Ahmed of the Center for Countering Digital Hate said in December 2022. “The algorithm recognizes vulnerability and, instead of seeing it as something it should be careful around, it sees it as a potential point of addiction — of helping to maximize time on the platform for that child by serving them up content that might trigger some of the pre-existing concerns.”
Marshall further highlighted how TikTok does not take the safety of young users seriously despite a large portion of the app’s user base being younger than 15 years old.
“Over one-third of its daily users in the United States are fourteen or younger. TikTok’s capture of the American youth market is no accident but is instead the result of a carefully executed campaign,” Marshall said.
Related: Lawsuit Reveals Another Way TikTok Exploits Children
Though TikTok has yet to respond to this lawsuit, the company has avoided blame when being sued by other states for similar cases. The company’s argument often consists of the fact that what is harmful for one person may not be for another, along with the fact that it has no control over how long a person spends on the platform.
While TikTok has yet to be held accountable for its policies, these former lawsuits have been effective in inspiring change, leading to the addition of stronger child safety measures and a quicker response from the company when dangerous trends spread. Hopefully Marshall’s lawsuit will continue this trend and make the platform safer for all who use it.
Read Next: Will This State’s Lawsuit Against TikTok for Harmful Content Succeed?
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