Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell filed a lawsuit against TikTok on Tuesday, allegedly the massively popular social media company has deliberately exploited young users.
“Today, we’re suing TikTok for designing its platform to be addictive and harmful to young people and deceiving the public about its efforts to keep its platform safe,” Campbell said at a press event announcing the lawsuit. “We allege that such conduct violates state consumer protection laws and has contributed to a mental health crisis among its young users.”
The Massachusetts action follows a multi-state investigation into TikTok’s practices launched in 2022 co-led by the Commonwealth and including AGs around the country across party lines. In addition to Massachusetts, twelve states and the District of Columbia filed lawsuits against TikTok on Tuesday.
The AG alleged that TikTok’s features like the “infinite scroll,” “autoplay,” “constant push notifications,” and those designed to induce an “ephemeral fear of missing out” are intentionally designed to be harmful and addictive to teens to increase profits.
Meanwhile, the platform markets itself as safe and prioritizing youth wellbeing, the AG’s office said.
“As we allege, these intentional features are remarkably effective at overriding a young person’s agency and keeping them tied to the platform,” said Campbell. “But instead of actually addressing these harms, Tiktok lulled parents into believing that so called safety features would protect teen users.”
The “teen account” safety feature advertised a 60 minute a day time limit for teen users, Campbell said, but included no actual limit. Instead, it offers teens a pop-up prompt they can easily bypass.
Alternatively, the AG said, TikTok’s sister app in China offers safety features for minors including limiting use to 40 minutes a day and limiting the hours young people can use the app.
The AG’s office filed a similar complaint against Meta last year, also accusing the company of preying on young people. Campbell did not give an update on the status of that case Tuesday and declined to answer whether her office is investigating any more social media companies.
TikTok has a massive scope in the Commonwealth, Campbell said, noting that Massachusetts teen accounts make up 150% of the state’s total teen population. The number is inflated by some teens having multiple accounts, she explained.
The social media platform’s internal data, the complaint alleges, shows a significant percentage of teen use during late night and overnight hours.
Internal records also show the company acknowledged the association of compulsive use with psychological and physical harms like “disrupted sleep, depression, increased loneliness, loss of analytical skills, memory formation, contextual thinking, conversational depth, and increased anxiety,” the AG’s office said.
The AG cited research, including from the U.S. Surgeon General, showing that a third of teens report using social media “almost constantly” and a broad range of negative effects on mental health.
The lawsuit is not seeking a ban of the platform, Campbell said, but accountability for the harm and injunctive relief, that may include changes to the app’s allegedly harmful features.
“This case is not about regulating the content that is shown to TikTok users,” Campbell said. “It’s about TikTok’s own bad conduct, its intentional design choices that trap young people’s time and attention and hurt them in the process. Our goal is to hold the company accountable for its unlawful content, to stop the company from engaging in practices that exploit our young people for profit.”
Originally Published:
