Fourteen attorneys general filed lawsuits against TikTok on Tuesday over concerns about how the app can impact the mental health of children. Each lawsuit was filed by a separate member of a bipartisan coalition led by New York Attorney General Letitia James and California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
The lawsuits allege that the platform has “addicted” children.
TikTok has denied the claims. “We strongly disagree with these claims, many of which we believe to be inaccurate and misleading,” TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek told CNN. “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. We provide robust safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users and have voluntarily launched safety features.”
Haurek added that TikTok has “endeavored to work with the Attorneys General for over two years, and it is incredibly disappointing they have taken this step rather than work with us on constructive solutions to industry-wide challenges.”
The lawsuits are among several filed against the social media platform this year. In February, former marketing executive Katie Ellen Puris filed a gender discrimination suit against TikTok and alleged she was fired because the company wanted “docility and meekness” from its staff.
According to that lawsuit, ByteDance chairman Lidong Zhang allegedly told other executives at the company that Puris “lacked the docility and meekness specifically required of female employees” after the pair had a meeting. Puris was subsequently let go.
In August, the United States Justice Department sued TikTok and ByteDance, alleging the platform “knowingly and repeatedly” violated children’s privacy. The suit further alleged that the platform “knowingly allowed children under 13 to create and use TikTok accounts without their parents’ knowledge or consent, have collected extensive data from those children and have failed to comply with parents’ request to delete their children’s accounts and personal information.”
A month later, TikTok and ByteDance were named in a class action lawsuit by parents who alleged the app violated the privacy rights of children. The suit alleges that TikTok collected personal information on users under 13, which goes against the rules and guidelines of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, aka COPPA.
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