Texas Legal professional Basic Ken Paxton on Thursday sued TikTok for the second time in latest months, accusing the social media firm of violating misleading commerce regulation by downplaying its addictiveness and exposing youngsters to specific materials.
The swimsuit argues that TikTok, a short-form video app, violated the Texas Misleading Commerce Practices Act by itemizing itself on app shops as applicable for kids and never imposing its group pointers successfully. The Apple App Retailer lists TikTok as rated for these 12 and older, whereas the Microsoft and Google Play Shops record the app as applicable for customers who’re 13 and older.
The 66-page submitting, which has a number of redactions, particulars a number of TikTok posts containing inappropriate materials that seemingly violate the rules and methods the app can circumvent parental controls on smartphones by means of an in-app browser. At one level, the lawsuit states the inappropriate materials additionally included little one sexual abuse content material, though that part of the swimsuit is basically redacted.
“TikTok actively labored to deceive dad and mom and lure youngsters onto their app regardless of the presence of an amazing quantity of profane and illicit materials,” Paxton stated in an announcement Thursday. “Firms might not jeopardize the well being and wellbeing of Texas youngsters by blatantly mendacity concerning the merchandise they supply.”
A spokesperson for TikTok didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
A number of instances the swimsuit references an investigation performed by the state that discovered movies which contained depictions of drug use, self-harm and sexually specific acts. In December, Paxton’s workplace introduced it could examine a number of social media platforms’ privateness and security practices for kids, nevertheless the workplace didn’t make clear in its announcement Thursday whether or not the investigation talked about within the lawsuit was associated.
However relying on a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Courtroom, TikTok might not be accessible to anybody within the nation for for much longer. The platform has acknowledged it could pull all exercise from the U.S. on Jan. 19 if the Supreme Courtroom doesn’t strike down a bipartisan regulation mandating its mother or father firm, ByteDance, promote TikTok.
The Supreme Courtroom is ready to listen to arguments Friday on the regulation, which makes it unlawful for suppliers like Apple to have functions accessible which can be owned by overseas adversaries. ByteDance is predicated in China, and the regulation was primarily aimed toward forcing the TikTok sale. ByteDance can be named within the lawsuit Paxton filed Thursday.
That is the second lawsuit Paxton has filed in opposition to TikTok in simply over three months, because the legal professional common’s workplace filed a swimsuit accusing the corporate of violating the brand new Securing Kids On-line by means of Parental Empowerment Act. The SCOPE Act, which has obtained its personal authorized challenges, forbids firms from promoting a minor’s private info with out parental approval, and the October lawsuit claims TikTok circumvented the regulation a number of instances. The brand new lawsuit was filed in the identical Galveston federal district as the primary swimsuit, and dozens of different lawsuits in opposition to social media platforms have been filed throughout the nation lately.
Texas lawmakers have weighed bringing restrictions or outright bans on social media platforms like TikTok for minors as some are uncovered to dangerous content material, however free speech advocacy organizations and tech firms have balked. A number of payments have been filed forward of the 2025 Texas legislative session, one in all which might probably limit minors from creating accounts on the websites altogether.
Disclosure: Apple, Google and Microsoft have been monetary supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partly by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no position within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full record of them right here.
This text initially appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/09/ken-paxton-tiktok-minors-explicit-content/.
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