TikTok has long known its live streams of videos encouraged sexual behavior and child exploitation, but turned a blind eye because it “substantially profited” from them, according to newly unsealed filings in a lawsuit filed by the state of Utah.
The allegations were made public on Friday, ahead of a scheduled January. 19 banning TikTok in the United States unless its China-based owner, ByteDance, sells the popular social media app.
President-elect Donald Trump has asked the US Supreme Court to suspend the ban.
TikTok, for its part, has said it prioritizes safe live streaming.
Utah’s original lawsuit accusing TikTok of child exploitation was filed last June by the state’s Division of Consumer Protection, with state Attorney General Sean Reyes saying that TikTok’s Live streaming feature created a “virtual strip club.” connecting victims to adult predators in real time.
Citing internal communications from TikTok employees and compliance reports, Friday’s largely unredacted complaint said TikTok learned of the threats posed to Live through a series of internal reviews of the feature.
He said an investigation known as Project Meramec revealed in early 2022 how hundreds of thousands of 13- to 15-year-olds circumvented Live’s minimum age restrictions.
He said many children were then allegedly “groomed” by adults to perform sexual acts, sometimes including nudity, in exchange for virtual gifts.
The complaint also said that an investigation launched in 2021, Project Jupiter, found that criminals were using Live to launder money, sell drugs and finance terrorism, including the Islamic State.
Additionally, a December 2023 internal study “documented what TikTok acknowledges is the ‘cruelty’ of maintaining Live with actual risks to minors on the app,” the complaint said.
User security
TikTok had fought the revelations, citing privacy concerns and its interest in “preventing potential bad actors from getting a roadmap” to misuse the app.
A Utah state judge, Coral Sanchez, ordered the release of much of the previously redacted material in December. 19.
“This lawsuit disregards the number of proactive measures that TikTok has voluntarily implemented to support the safety and well-being of the community,” a TikTok spokesperson said Friday.
“Instead, the complaint cherry picks misleading quotes and outdated documents and presents them out of context, which distorts our commitment to the safety of our community,” the spokesperson added.
In October, a bipartisan group of 13 states and Washington, DC, separately sued TikTok for allegedly exploiting children and their addiction to the app.
“Social media is too often the tool to exploit America’s youth,” Reyes said in a statement Friday.
“Thanks to Judge Sanchez’s ruling, more of TikTok’s shocking behavior will now be made public through this unredacted complaint,” he added. “The full extent of his guilt can be demonstrated at trial.”
President Joe Biden signed a law authorizing the ban on TikTok last April, addressing concerns that TikTok could collect intelligence on American users and share it with the Chinese government.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether to lift the ban in January. 10. Expected to rule quickly.
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