The US state of Utah has filed a lawsuit against the short video format application TikTok. It gains access to the Chinese-owned app that is accused of injuring and “exploiting” young children by purposely forcing them to spend excessive amounts of time on the platform.
The claim filed on Tuesday (October 10th) is merely the latest lawsuit in the United States challenging the popular software. Previously, Indiana and Arkansas filed similar cases against the video-sharing network.
Compulsion, exploitation, and other issues
Utah has filed a lawsuit in state court. It claims that TikTok videos use “highly powerful algorithms and manipulative design features — many of which mimic features of slot machines” and that young customers become addicted as a result of these “manipulative” practices.
Reuters reports that in the filling, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said: “What these children (and their parents) do not know is that TikTok is lying to them about the safety of its app and exploiting them into checking and watching the app compulsively, no matter the terrible effects it has on their mental health, their physical development, their family, and their social life.”
What kind of action is Utah looking for?
The Utah investigation into TikTok is ongoing, according to Reyes. According to Reuters, the Utah Attorney General will also urge a court next week to compel TikTok to comply with investigating subpoenas.
According to the report, Utah is seeking civil penalties as well as an injunction to prevent TikTok from breaking a consumer protection state legislation that protects customers from deceptive business practices.
Responding to the suit, TikTok said that it “has industry-leading safeguards for young people, including an automatic 60-minute time limit for users under 18 and parental controls for teen accounts.”
TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese corporation, has over 150 million users in the United States.
The company is already facing multiple lawsuits across the US. Last year, a group of Republican lawmakers had alleged that “many children are exposed to non-stop offerings of inappropriate content that TikTok’s algorithm force-feeds to them.”
Indiana sued the app in December. The matter is still pending in state court. Arkansas introduced its suit in March. The action, which also involves Meta, accuses social media corporations of “pushing addictive platforms.”
Montana went a step further and outlawed the use of the app in the state. TikTok, on the other hand, is attempting to prevent the ban from taking effect on January 1st. The lawsuit will be heard on Thursday (October 12th).
