DC Attorney General Schwalb sues social media platform TikTok, joining 13 other states
WASHINGTON - D.C. is joining more than a dozen states in suing social media giant TikTok.
Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb announced a lawsuit against TikTok, Inc., accusing the platform of causing mental and physical harm to D.C. children. The lawsuit accuses the platform of being intentionally designed to be addictive to kids. The lawsuit also alleges that TikTok deceives its users and their parents about the safety of its platform, and illegally operates a money transmission business, all in violation of District consumer protection laws.
AG Schwalb wants to force TikTok to correct its "harmful and deceptive consumer practices." They're also seeking monetary restitution for any impacted District residents, plus civil penalties, and attorney fees.
"TikTok’s platform, designed to be dangerously addictive, inflicts immense damage on an entire generation of young people," said Attorney General Schwalb. "In addition to prioritizing its profits over the health of children, TikTok’s unregulated and illegal virtual economy allows the darkest, most depraved corners of society to prey upon vulnerable victims. The company knows what is happening and has chosen to ignore it. This lawsuit seeks to put an end to its illegal, deceptive, and predatory behavior."
The filing not only claims TikTok enables sexual exploitation of children through livestreams and virtual currency features that the platform profits from, receiving a 50% commission from each financial transaction.
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A parent and tech expert says it's about time policymakers woke up to what's been happening online for years.
"So I don't think it's ever too late, and I don't think it's political. I think these people - most of them are parents or grandparents - these people in positions of power, are starting to recognize this in their own children and grandchildren," said Katey McPherson, Bark Technology.
McPherson added that parenting plays a vital role as well.
"It's a huge part of parenting but when we know how cigarettes were so bad and the feds stepped in and helped us with that, the expectation from my perspective as a parent of four teenagers is that we're both going to be doing our jobs to make it safer," she said.
McPherson said she noticed issues with social media back in 2003 as a school administrator and saw students suffering.
"All of these apps - including TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, their parental controls are sort of a joke, anyone can get around them and kids are very savvy," McPherson added.
Stephen Balkam is the founder of the Family Online Safety Institute.
"The question is, going at them in this way, is this the best way to do it? Perhaps in our litigious society, it may be the only way to do it," Balkam said. "But on the other hand, as you mentioned, in Great Britain, Australia, France, Germany - they have taken the route of going through their parliaments or their congresses to change laws."
Balkam said that at a national level, there are very few federal laws in place around online safety.
"These other countries you mention don't have the First Amendment and oftentimes, Congress does try to create laws that would help protect kids but invariably these get challenged in court on free speech grounds," he added.
A TikTok spokesperson shared a statement. The full statement can be viewed below:
"We strongly disagree with these claims, many of which we believe to be 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. We provide robust safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users, and have voluntarily launched safety features such as default screentime limits, family pairing, and privacy by default for minors under 16. We've endeavored to work with the Attorneys General for over two years, and it is incredibly disappointing they have taken this step rather than work with us on constructive solutions to industrywide challenges."
Read the full complaint below: