TikTok Faces First US Trial Over Teen Mental Health Claims in Alabama
Alabama's lawsuit alleges the platform is addictive and misled consumers about its safety for young users.
An Alabama jury will begin hearing claims that TikTok and its parent company ByteDance made the platform addictive to young users and misled consumers about its safety. This marks the first trial against the social media giant in a wave of litigation concerning the impact of social media on teen well-being.
The trial is set to commence in Montgomery, Alabama, and is expected to last two to three weeks. It could offer a rare public examination of TikTok's operations, as the company has previously settled cases selected for trial and sought to keep details of its business private.
Alabama's lawsuit was filed last year by Republican Attorney General Steve Marshall. At least 27 other states and the District of Columbia have also filed similar lawsuits against the company.
TikTok has stated that it prioritizes teen safety and argues that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects online platforms from liability for user-generated content. Representatives for the Alabama attorney general's office and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Alabama's legal team contends that TikTok's algorithm promotes increasingly intense content, including material related to violence and self-harm, contributing to a crisis in teen mental health and a surge in emergency room visits for self-harm in the state. The lawsuit also accuses TikTok of falsely claiming to limit exposure to sexual and violent content for young users to secure favorable ratings in app stores, and of misleading users about the Chinese government's access to data from US users.
The state is seeking penalties and other forms of relief.
Redacted Documents and Sealed Filings
Much of the evidence concerning TikTok's operations has been kept from public view due to the company's settlements in key cases and its efforts to seal or heavily redact court records. Beyond the states' cases, TikTok faces thousands of lawsuits from individuals, school districts, and municipalities alleging harm to young users' mental health.
Other major social media companies, including Meta Platforms, Snap Inc., and Alphabet's YouTube, are also defendants in many of these related cases. TikTok had previously settled all cases that had been selected for trial, including those brought by individuals and a Kentucky school district.
The state's lawsuit asserts that while TikTok asks users to self-report their ages, it allows users to bypass age verification by viewing videos without an account, thereby enabling the company to collect data on their viewing habits. The lawsuit argues that the absence of effective age restrictions renders features like "Kids Mode" ineffective. Furthermore, the state claims the platform creates "filter bubbles" that expose children to increasingly intense content on subjects that capture their attention, including harmful material.
In a separate development last month, Meta reached a substantial $17.1 billion settlement with 47 states, Washington D.C., and US territories. Meta, which did not admit wrongdoing, agreed to implement changes regarding teens' access to Instagram and Facebook. A portion of this payout was conditioned on TikTok, Snap, and YouTube adopting similar terms. TikTok has not publicly commented on this agreement.