Alabama court to hear lawsuit against TikTok over teenagers — Channel NewsAsia
A jury trial in the US state of Alabama is due to begin on Monday in the state’s lawsuit against TikTok and the Chinese company ByteDance. Alabama authorities claim that the platform caused addiction among young users and misled consumers about its safety. This is the first case against TikTok in a broad series of lawsuits over social media’s impact on teenagers’ mental health to reach trial, Channel NewsAsia reports.
State allegations
The hearings will take place in a state court in Montgomery and are expected to last two or three weeks. The lawsuit was filed last year by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall. At least 27 US states and the District of Columbia have filed similar lawsuits against the company.
In its lawsuit, Alabama claims that the endless video feed makes TikTok the most addictive social platform, while the algorithm allegedly directs young users toward increasingly intense content about violence and self-harm. According to the state, this contributed to a mental health crisis among teenagers and a sharp increase in emergency department visits related to self-harm.
The lawsuit also alleges that TikTok falsely claimed it limited minors’ access to sexual and violent content so that the app would receive a teen-safe rating in the Google, Apple and Microsoft stores. Separately, the state accuses the platform of misleading users about Chinese authorities’ access to data of US users. Alabama is seeking fines and other legal remedies.
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TikTok’s position and previous cases
TikTok has said that it developed the platform with teenage safety as a priority. The company has also cited Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which, in its view, protects online platforms from liability for content created by users.
According to the lawsuit, TikTok asks users to state their age themselves, but allows videos to be viewed without creating an account. Alabama believes this makes it possible to bypass age questions while collecting data on content viewing. The state also considers Kids Mode ineffective due to the lack of an effective age restriction, and says children can end up in so-called filter bubbles with increasingly intense or harmful content.
TikTok previously settled all cases selected for trial, including lawsuits brought by five young people and a Kentucky school district. The company also faces thousands of lawsuits from private individuals, school districts and municipalities. In many of them, Meta Platforms, Snap Inc and Alphabet’s YouTube are also defendants.
