Arizona says TikTok addicts teen users in new consumer fraud suit

The complaint is the latest in a barrage of legal action filed this year against TikTok and other social media platforms like Facebook and Snapchat.PHOENIX (CN) — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes sued TikTok on Thursday, accusing the social media giant of intentionally addicting and endangering Arizona children and teens.Mayes says TikTok, the short-form video streaming app that widely popularized “infinite scroll,” engineered its platform to maximize compulsive use among minors — including children under age 13 — by deploying manipulative design tactics “like auto-play, reward loops featuring harmful content, social‑comparison metrics, push notifications and harmful appearance‑altering filters.”She says the features are designed to attract young users and keep them engaged for as long as possible.“TikTok has repeatedly and knowingly violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act by designing one of the most addictive products ever targeted at children — and by concealing the severe mental, physical and emotional‑health risks these design choices create,” Mayes said in a press release.A TikTok spokesperson denied the claims in an email to Courthouse News.“This lawsuit relies on misleading and inaccurate claims and deliberately ignores the concrete safety measures TikTok has voluntarily implemented to support the well-being of our community,” they said. “We will vigorously defend against these claims.“Filed Thursday morning in Maricopa County Superior Court, Mayes asserts in her consumer protection complaint that TikTok minimizes or entirely fails to disclose potential harms like increased risks of depression, anxiety, sleep disruption, disordered eating, body‑image distress and self‑harm. TikTok’s content-moderation practices are inadequate to prevent minors from consuming increasingly harmful or age-inappropriate content, she claims.Mayes’ lawsuit is her latest in a series of consumer protection actions against tech giants like Amazon and Temu. In August, she negotiated alongside 46 other attorneys general a multibillion-dollar settlement with Meta Platforms Inc., owner of Facebook and Instagram, over similar teen addiction claims made in federal court. TikTok was a defendant in the lawsuit but has not agreed to the same settlement. Instead, it entered a $100 million settlement agreement with the state of Alabama, which could grow if other states join.TikTok’s settlement with Alabama mirrors safety provisions Meta agreed to, including a two-hour daily time limit for teens, restricted access from midnight to 6 a.m. and suspended notifications during school hours. It will also strengthen age verification, ban beauty filters for teenagers and offer young users a nonpersonalized content feed.“Arizona’s children are paying the price for TikTok’s pursuit of profit,” Mayes said. “We will not tolerate a global corporation putting our kids’ health, privacy and safety at risk to increase advertising revenue. This lawsuit, like the landmark lawsuit against Meta, is necessary to stop TikTok’s unlawful practices, hold the company accountable and protect Arizona families from further harm.”TikTok claims to prohibit users younger than 13, but Mayes accuses the company of knowingly allowing younger users and, worse, enabling child sexual exploitation and the circulation of child sexual abuse material through “post‑in‑private” accounts.TikTok also markets a 60-minute screen time limit, but in her complaint, Mayes says the limits are ineffective and easily disabled.“TikTok touts its supposed safety measures to convince parents that this product is safe for young people,” she said. “But behind the company’s marketing is a platform engineered to exploit the vulnerabilities of developing brains, pushing Arizona kids toward compulsive use, harmful content and dangerous behaviors while failing to protect them from adults who use the social media platform to groom or solicit minors. It’s unconscionable.”Finally, Mayes accuses TikTok of withholding certain safety features from some users for “placebo testing,” without users’ knowledge.“None of these material facts, then known to TikTok, were shared with its users, the public at large, with Arizona teens or their parents, or even with Congress in response to questioning,” she says in the complaint.Mayes lodges counts of Arizona Consumer fraud act violations: deceptive acts and practices; unlawful concealments and omissions; and unfair practices.She asks that a state judge order injunctive relief, disgorge TikTok of all profits made through the accused deceptive acts, and order the platform to pay up to $10,000 for each willful violation. In a similar state court case in New Mexico, a jury ordered Meta to pay nearly $220 billion after calculating the number of consumer fraud violations against users in the state. Though the judge will likely lower that penalty to account for due process concerns, TikTok’s penalties in Arizona could easily reach the millions if it’s found liable.TikTok has not responded to a request for comment.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads