Montana‘s top attorney has sued TikTok, accusing the Chinese-owned company of turning a blind eye to “harmful” content being exposed to its underage users.
Montana Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen said TikTok was wrong for marketing the app as being friendly to younger users, saying an investigation led by the Montana Department of Justice uncovered “virtually endless amounts of extreme and mature videos presented to children as young as 13.”
TikTok claims that content referencing alcohol, tobacco, drugs, sexual content, and mature themes is infrequent and mild, but the Montana Department of Justice found numerous videos with these themes with “hundreds of millions of views.”
Investigators also found that TikTok’s restrictive controls, meant to limit the content that may not be appropriate for all to view, does not actually prevent users from seeing mature content.
“Parents need to know the limits of these so-called ‘safety’ features before they decide whether, and how, to permit their children to use TikTok,” Knudsen said. “Misrepresentations about these safety features are particularly acute and deceptive when combined with TikTok’s other deceptive representations.”
The lawsuit asserts TikTok is in violation of the Montana Consumer Protection Act, which curbs “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce.”
“TikTok must be held accountable for poisoning the minds of children and lying to parents about the videos their children can view on the app,” Knudsen added as part of the lawsuit. “Parents need to know the truth about the content their children have access to on the app and TikTok is pushing to their feeds.”
Last year, Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) passed a law banning TikTok in an effort to protect citizens from having their data and personal information collected by the Chinese Communist Party. However, a federal judge blocked the law from going into effect, saying it violated the freedom of speech.
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Earlier this month, 14 attorneys general filed a lawsuit against TikTok for allegedly exploiting and exposing minors to harmful content as well as being misleading about the app’s addictive nature.
TikTok has been the subject of congressional scrutiny in recent years, and in May, President Joe Biden signed legislation requiring TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, to sell the company by 2025. If not, TikTok will be prohibited from U.S. app stores and networks.