Utah Sues Tiktok Over ‘Addictive And Destructive Social Media Habits’

The newest US state to suit TikTok is Utah, which claims the firm is “baiting” kids into bad social media habits and addiction.

Utah argues in the lawsuit that TikTok deceitfully depicts itself as independent of its Chinese parent firm, ByteDance, misrepresents the app’s safety and coerces minors into spending hours on social media.

“We will not stand by while these companies fail to take adequate, meaningful action to protect our children. We will prevail in holding social media companies accountable by any means necessary,” Republican Governor Spencer Cox said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit, which was filed in state court in Salt Lake City.

While the US Supreme Court prepares to rule whether state attempts to restrict social media platforms like Facebook, X, and TikTok violate the Constitution, Arkansas and Indiana have filed analogous lawsuits.

In the Utah case, concerns about public health are mentioned. According to research, youngsters who use social media for more than three hours a day have a twofold increased risk of mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression.

“TikTok created and used algorithm features that spoonfeed youngsters endless, carefully curated content, making it difficult for them to disengage. Sean Reyes, the attorney general of Utah, said at the news conference that TikTok created these elements to resemble a sadistic slot machine that captures children’s attention and won’t let them go.

According to Mr. Reyes, the lawsuit aims to penalize TikTok for its “destructive behavior” and compel it to stop it while also imposing fines and penalties to pay for education initiatives and otherwise repair the harm done to Utah children.

TikTok includes industry-leading protections for children, such as a time limit of 60 minutes automatically applied to users under 18 and parental controls for teen accounts. By addressing issues facing the entire industry, we will continue to work to keep our community secure, according to a statement from TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek.

Utah became the first state to approve legislation restricting kids’ and teenagers’ usage of social media apps like TikTok earlier this year. The laws are scheduled to go into force in 2019.

Under-18s will be subject to a digital curfew, and businesses will be required to confirm the ages of all Utah users. Minors will also need parental permission to sign up for social networking apps.

They also mandate that tech companies provide parents access to the accounts and private messages of their children, which has some child advocates worried that this could worsen the mental health of kids.

According to them, denying kids their privacy could be harmful to LGBT+ kids whose parents do not support their identity.