Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall revealed a lawsuit against TikTok’s parent company ByteDance for exploiting children and intentionally targeting them with addictive content.
“Today we join concerned parents across our state to stand up for Alabama’s children,” Marshall said. “TikTok preys on young people, feeding them dangerous and damaging content while lying to parents about how safe the app really is.”
“The platform was designed to addict kids and put profits ahead of the mental health of an entire generation,” he continued. “TikTok’s so-called ‘safety features’ are a joke. They are nothing more than a marketing ploy to trick parents into trusting a product that TikTok knows full well is dangerous. Alabama families deserve the truth, and we will make sure they get it.”
The Attorney General specifically highlighted the platform’s algorithm which targets users with videos specifically tailored for them. This algorithm is on by default, and there’s no way to completely turn off. Furthermore, the algorithm feeds people content solely with a focus on keeping them on the app, even if it will harm them in some way.
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