New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin announced a lawsuit against TikTok on Tuesday that he says he’s filing on behalf of the 2 million New Jersey residents under the age of 18 targeted by the video-sharing platform.
“Today, my office sued TikTok, ByteDance, which is its parent company, and its affiliates in state court, for engaging in a pattern of unconscionable and abusive business practices that favor the almighty dollar over the mental health and safety of our youngest residents,” said Platkin, who added that the Chinese-owned TikTok had violated New Jersey consumer law “by designing a platform that consistently and deliberately targets our youth to become more compulsive users, without making them or their parents aware of the risks.”
The lawsuit alleges problematic strategies used by TikTok include auto play, infinite scroll, recommended videos and algorithms that track users’ behavior.
Cari Fais, acting director of the Division of Consumer Affairs, said, “After opening TikTok, children are automatically fed a never-ending stream of videos curated just for them, by an algorithm designed to prevent them from closing the app. And when they do finally close the app, TikTok sends them push notifications designed to entice children to return to the platform. TikTok goes so far as to trick children with badge displays that supposedly show the number of unread messages or notifications. Little do these children know, these are entirely made up.”
The lawsuit also blames TikTok for not removing content that breaks its own safety guidelines.
One year ago, Platkin joined with 41 other attorneys general in a suit against Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, for similar practices they say harm children. That suit is ongoing.
On Tuesday, 12 other states and the District of Columbia filed similar but separate suits against TikTok.
