Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R) has filed a lawsuit against China’s TikTok, accusing the social media giant of knowingly sharing addictive and harmful content with children and teens.
The Hill reports that in a move to protect the mental health of young Americans, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has filed a lawsuit against the popular social media platform TikTok. The suit, which follows an investigation by the Montana Department of Justice, alleges that TikTok intentionally designed its platform to be addictive and misrepresented the content being shown to children and teens, violating the Montana Consumer Protection Act.
According to the filing, the investigation uncovered “virtually endless amounts of extreme and mature videos presented to children as young as thirteen.” Knudsen’s office claims that TikTok targeted young users by making the platform addictive and then misrepresented the content being shown on the app, deceiving parents about the videos their children can access.
The lawsuit specifically takes issue with TikTok’s age ratings on various app stores, arguing that the platform misleads the public about the frequency of posts containing profanity, crude humor, mature themes, sexual content, nudity, alcohol, or drug use references. Despite TikTok’s claims that such posts are “infrequent and mild,” the suit contends that many videos with “hundreds of millions of views” feature this type of content.
Furthermore, the suit alleges that TikTok’s “effects,” which can alter users’ appearances, contribute to body image issues, eating disorders, and other mental health problems among young users. The filing also questions the effectiveness of TikTok’s restrictive controls, claiming that even when restricted mode is enabled, it does not work as the company claims.
In response to the lawsuit, a TikTok spokesperson stated that the company “strongly disagrees” with the claims, believing most of the allegations to be “inaccurate and misleading.” The spokesperson added, “We’re proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we’ve done to protect teens, and we will continue to update and improve our product.”
This lawsuit comes nearly two weeks after several other states filed similar suits against TikTok, raising concerns about the platform’s impact on young users’ mental health. It also follows a complicated history between TikTok and the state of Montana, with Governor Greg Gianforte signing a law last year to ban the app, only for a federal judge to rule that the law violates users’ free speech.
Read more at the Hill here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
