California Sues TikTok in Major Lawsuit, Alleges It Exploits Young Users

California and New York are leading the charge of more than a dozen states suing TikTok, accusing the social media giant of designing addictive features to keep kids hooked on the platform.

The 81-page, heavily redacted complaint filed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta in Santa Clara County on Tuesday alleges that TikTok violated California’s Unfair Competition Law and False Advertising Law by collecting the personal information of young users. It also claims that the company’s scheme of purported safety features and tools misled the public about the app’s dangers and instead promoted harmful content to children.

Bonta and New York Attorney General Letitia Brown co-led the coalition of attorneys general from 13 states and the District of Columbia, with each filing its own lawsuit alleging that TikTok violated consumer laws and damaged the mental health of children.

Bonta’s office started investigating TikTok’s potential harms in 2022. California filed a similar lawsuit against Facebook’s parent company, Meta, last year.

In a Tuesday press conference at the San Francisco Public Library, Bonta called youth addiction “a key and central pillar to TikTok’s business model.”

“They specifically prey on young people’s vulnerabilities and their developing brains,” Bonta said. “They have an algorithm that’s designed to suck our kids in and keep them on.”

Bonta outlined several features of the app that state regulators say harm the mental health of young people — especially girls — including beauty filters, infinite scrolling, push notifications and likes.

“The use of these features, which are manipulative and harmful, is intentional,” Bonta said.

TikTok spokesperson Jason Grosse told KQED the company strongly disagrees with the claims made by Bonta, which he called “inaccurate and misleading.”

“We’re proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we’ve done to protect teens, and we will continue to update and improve our product,” he said.

Grosse noted that the lawsuit followed more than two years of negotiations with the 12 states.

“It is incredibly disappointing they have taken this step rather than work with us on constructive solutions to industry-wide challenges,” he said.

TikTok faced Congressional scrutiny last year when CEO Shou Zi Chew was grilled by lawmakers about the safety and security of the immensely popular app. Chew testified that while the vast majority of TikTok users are over 18, the company has invested in measures to protect young people who use the app.

TikTok also faces legal threats at the federal level. In April, President Joe Biden signed into law legislation to ban or force a sale of TikTok by ByteDance, the app’s parent company. TikTok has 16 million users in California and an outsized influence in Silicon Valley, where it expanded its offices in San Jose earlier this year. According to California’s complaint, San Jose and neighboring Mountain View are “the hub” for the app’s Trust and Safety Team, which protects user data and is intended to specialize in youth safety.

A 2022 Pew Research Center report found that 67% of U.S. teens ages 13-17 use TikTok, and 16% of all teens said they use the app almost constantly.

A UCSF study published Monday found that for preteens, longer screen time increases the likelihood that nine- and 10-year-olds will develop symptoms of mental illness. The lead author, Dr. Jason Nagata, an associate professor of pediatrics at UCSF, pointed out that even though the minimum age requirement for social media use, including TikTok, is 13, the study found that two-thirds of the students had social media accounts.

“Robust age verification is not currently present, and many kids are able to lie about their age and get TikTok accounts,” Nagata said.

The UCSF study also found that the impact on mental health also varied by race, with Black and Asian youth reporting weaker associations between screen time use and mental health than their white peers.

“I think it is also possible that through social media, minority groups — whether it’s racial or ethnic minorities or even LGBT youth — may be able to connect with others on social media, even if they don’t have that community in their immediate in-person environment,” Nagata said.

KQED’s Leslie McClurg contributed to this report.