Minnesota Targets TikTok in Lawsuit Over Teen Mental Health
St. Paul, MN (MinnesotaNow) - The State of Minnesota’s top prosecutor is now targeting TikTok.
State Attorney General Keith Ellison has filed a lawsuit against the social media platform that is similar to a federal lawsuit brought against Meta nearly two years ago. That case involved allegations concerning the design of Instagram and Facebook.
Ellison claims that TikTok is “prioritizing profit over well-being at virtually every turn.” The lawsuit alleges that TikTok “ensnares young users in cycles of excessive use through app design features that prey on young people’s neurodevelopmental vulnerabilities.”
The court filing details accusations that the company has made strategic decisions to “squeeze time, attention, data, and even money out of young users.” One of the allegations involves TikTok’s live-streaming feature, which uses virtual currencies and has allegedly been linked to “instances of sexual and financial exploitation of young TikTok users.”
“If you know nothing else about TikTok, you know it’s extremely addicting,” said Attorney General Ellison. “My office’s extensive investigation into the company has confirmed that addictiveness is the result of years of intentional decisions that TikTok’s leadership made in the pursuit of profit. We also know that spending excessive time on TikTok can be harmful to someone’s mental health. Young people are particularly vulnerable to the harms TikTok can inflict since the regions of their brains that manage things like impulse control, decision-making, and risk-taking are still developing.
“Simply put, the more people TikTok can get addicted to its app, the more money they make, and the more their users’ mental health suffers,” added Ellison. “This conduct is not just deeply immoral, it’s illegal. Today, I am filing a lawsuit to bring an end to TikTok’s preying on Minnesota’s children.”
Ellison says the lawsuit, which he describes as groundbreaking, seeks to hold the social media company liable for its business practices and to protect young Minnesotans. He is asking the court to order substantive changes in the way TikTok operates, along with financial penalties and damages.
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