Lawsuits involving TikTok

Last updated

TikTok has been involved in a number of lawsuits since its founding, with a number of them relating to TikTok's data collection techniques.

Contents

Tencent lawsuits

Tencent's WeChat platform has been accused of blocking Douyin's videos. [1] [2] In April 2018, Douyin sued Tencent and accused it of spreading false and damaging information on its WeChat platform, demanding CN¥1 million in compensation and an apology. In June 2018, Tencent filed a lawsuit against Toutiao and Douyin in a Beijing court, alleging they had repeatedly defamed Tencent with negative news and damaged its reputation, seeking a nominal sum of CN¥1 in compensation and a public apology. [3] In response, Toutiao filed a complaint the following day against Tencent for allegedly unfair competition and asking for CN¥90 million in economic losses. [4]

Data transfer class action lawsuit

In November 2019, a class action lawsuit was filed in California that alleged that TikTok transferred personally identifiable information of U.S. persons to servers located in China owned by Tencent and Alibaba. [5] [6] [7] The lawsuit also accused ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, of taking user content without their permission. The plaintiff of the lawsuit, college student Misty Hong, downloaded the app but said she never created an account. She realized a few months later that TikTok had created an account for her using her information (such as biometrics) and made a summary of her information. The lawsuit also alleged that information was sent to Chinese tech giant Baidu. [8] In July 2020, twenty lawsuits against TikTok were merged into a single class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. [9] In February 2021, TikTok agreed to pay $92 million to settle the class action lawsuit. [10] The court approved the settlement in July 2022. [11]

Inappropriate content for minors

In December 2022, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita filed two separate lawsuits against TikTok in the Allen County Superior Court in Fort Wayne, Indiana. [12] The first complaint alleged that the platform exposed inappropriate content to minors, and that TikTok "intentionally falsely reports the frequency of sexual content, nudity, and mature/suggestive themes" on their platform which made the app's "12-plus" age ratings on the Apple and Google app stores deceptive. [12] [13] The second complaint alleged TikTok does not disclose the Chinese government's potential to access sensitive consumer information. [12] [13] The two lawsuits were later consolidated and dismissed. [14] In dismissing the lawsuit in November 2023, the Superior Court cited that the court “lacks personal jurisdiction” over TikTok. [14]

In November 2024, a group of French families sued TikTok over exposing adolescents to harmful content, leading two to take their lives. [15] The families alleged TikTok's algorithm exposed the children to content promoting self-harm, eating disorders and suicide. [16]

Voice actor lawsuit

In May 2021, Canadian voice actor Bev Standing filed a lawsuit against TikTok over the use of her voice in the text-to-speech feature without her permission. The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York. TikTok declined to comment. Standing had taken up a contract with the Chinese government-run Institute of Acoustics narrating English for translations but says she never agreed for her voice to be used in other ways. [17] The voice used in the feature was subsequently changed. [18]

Collecting children's data

In June 2021, the Netherlands-based Market Information Research Foundation (SOMI) filed a €1.4 billion lawsuit with an Amsterdam court on behalf of Dutch parents against TikTok, alleging that the app gathers data on children without adequate permission. [19] In interlocutory judgments issued in October 2023 and January 2024, the Amsterdam District Court allowed the claims of SOMI to proceed, along with those of the Foundation Take Back Your Privacy and the Foundation Mass Damage & Consumer. [20]

On August 2, 2024, the US Department of Justice sued TikTok for allegedly violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). [21] In October 2024, Texas sued TikTok, accusing it of violating state law by sharing children's personal identifying information without consent from their parents or legal guardians. [22] The same month, thirteen states and District of Columbia filed lawsuits against TikTok over mental health concerns involving minors. [23] One of the lawsuits, filed by the Attorney General of Kentucky, stated that TikTok developed an internal strategy to influence U.S. senator Mitch McConnell and other politicians. [24]

Blackout Challenge

Multiple lawsuits have been filed against TikTok, accusing the platform of hosting content that led to the death of at least seven children. [25] The lawsuits claim that children died after attempting the "Blackout challenge", a TikTok trend that involves strangling or asphyxiating someone or themselves until they black out (passing out). TikTok stated that search queries for the challenge do not show any results, linking instead to protective resources, while the parents of two of the deceased argued that the content showed up on their children's TikTok feeds, without them searching for it. [26]

In May 2022, Tawainna Anderson, the mother of a 10-year-old girl from Pennsylvania, filed a lawsuit against TikTok in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. [27] Her daughter died while attempting the Blackout Challenge on TikTok. [28] The District Court dismissed the complaint in October 2022 and held that the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C. § 230, immunizes TikTok. [28] [27] On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed and remanded the case to the lower court in August 2024, holding that Section 230 only immunizes information provided by third parties and not recommendations made by TikTok's algorithm. [29] [30]

According to The Independent, the Blackout Challenge reportedly was linked to the deaths of 20 children between 2021 and 2022, 15 of whom were under the age of 12. [31]

Discrimination

In September 2023, two former ByteDance employees filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) asking the EEOC to investigate TikTok's practice of retaliation against workers who complain about discrimination. [32]

In February 2024, Katie Puris, a former senior executive at TikTok filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the company, alleging discrimination based on age and gender. [33] Prior to this lawsuit, she had filed a complaint with the EEOC against the company in May 2023, alleging discrimination and retaliation. [33]

In August 2024, Olivia Anton Altamirano, a TikTok UK content moderator, sued the social media platform and its parent company, ByteDance Ltd., in the London employment tribunal, alleging disability discrimination and a toxic workplace culture that caused her stress and pregnancy complications. [34] TikTok denied the allegations. After a hearing, a UK judge allowed the case to proceed. [34]

Mental health of minors

In May 2024, the Nebraska Attorney General filed a lawsuit against TikTok for allegedly harming minors' mental health through an algorithm designed to be cultivate compulsive behavior. [35]

TikTok v. Garland

This paragraph is an excerpt from TikTok v. Garland.[ edit ]

TikTok, et al. v. Garland is a lawsuit brought by social media company TikTok against the United States government. Chinese internet technology company ByteDance and its subsidiary TikTok allege that the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), an act of the U.S. Congress that bans certain apps unless sold by their owners, violates the Freedom of Speech Clause of the First Amendment, the Bill of Attainder Clause of Article I, Section IX, and the Takings Clause and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment by imposing an unfeasible deadline for divestment, effectively removing the app. [36]

On December 6, 2024, a panel of judges on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected the company's claims about the constitutionality of the law under Article I, Section IX, the First Amendment, and the Fifth Amendment and upheld the law. [37] [38] [39]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tencent</span> Chinese conglomerate holding company

Tencent Holdings Ltd. is a Chinese multinational technology conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the world's largest company in the video game industry based on its equity investments.

WeChat or Weixin in Chinese ; lit. 'micro-message') is a Chinese instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. First released in 2011, it became the world's largest standalone mobile app in 2018 with over 1 billion monthly active users. WeChat has been described as China's "app for everything" and a super-app because of its wide range of functions. WeChat provides text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, video conferencing, video games, mobile payment, sharing of photographs and videos and location sharing.

The following is a list of notable lawsuits involving former United States president Donald Trump. The list excludes cases that only name Trump as a legal formality in his capacity as president, such as habeas corpus requests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ByteDance</span> Chinese internet technology company

ByteDance Ltd. is a Chinese internet technology company headquartered in Haidian, Beijing and incorporated in the Cayman Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TikTok</span> Video-focused social media platform

TikTok, whose mainland Chinese and Hong Kong counterpart is Douyin, is a short-form video hosting service owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from three seconds to 60 minutes. It can be accessed with a smart phone app or the web.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zhang Yiming</span> Chinese internet entrepreneur (born 1983)

Zhang Yiming is a Chinese Internet entrepreneur. He founded ByteDance in 2012, developed the news aggregator Toutiao and the video sharing platform Douyin. Zhang is one of the richest individuals in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$45.6 billion as of October 2024, according to Forbes and US$43.1 billion according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. On November 4, 2021, Zhang stepped down as CEO of ByteDance, completing a leadership handover announced in May 2021. According to Reuters, Zhang maintains over 50 percent of ByteDance's voting rights. The surging global popularity of TikTok made Zhang the richest man in China in 2024.

Shanghai Moonton Technology Co. Ltd., commonly known as Moonton, is a Chinese multinational video game developer and publisher owned by the Nuverse subsidiary of ByteDance and based in Shanghai, China. It is best known for the mobile multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang released in July 2016.

Zynn was a Chinese video-sharing social networking service owned by Kuaishou, a Beijing-based internet technology company established in 2011 by Su Hua and Cheng Yixiao. It was used to create and share short videos, and it pays its users for using the app and referring others. Zynn was launched on May 7, 2020. It became the most-downloaded app in the App Store in the same month. It has also been criticized for being a "pyramid scheme", and it has faced accusations of plagiarism and stealing content. Aside from Zynn in North America, Kuaishou is available under the name Kwai in Russia, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, America, India, and the Middle East. Kwai used to be available in Australia and the United States on the App Store, but was removed at an unknown date. Zynn was permanently shut down on the 20th of August, 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triller (app)</span> American social networking service

Triller is an American video-sharing social networking service that was first released for iOS and Android in 2015. The service allows users to create and share short-form videos, including videos set to, or automatically synchronized to, music using artificial intelligence technology. It initially operated as a video editing app before adding social networking features.

<i>U.S. WeChat Users Alliance v. Trump</i> Lawsuit between U.S. WeChat Users Alliance and President Donald J. Trump

U.S. WeChat Users Alliance (USWUA) v. Trump was a court case pending before the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The plaintiffs won a preliminary injunction on September 20, 2020, blocking the Trump administration's ban order against WeChat based on concerns raised about harm to First Amendment rights and the hardships imposed on a minority community using the app as a primary means of communication. The lawsuit was dismissed in July 2021, following the Biden Administration's rescission of the executive order.

<i>TikTok v. Trump</i> Lawsuit between TikTok and Donald Trump

TikTok v. Trump was a lawsuit before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia filed in September 2020 by TikTok as a challenge to President Donald Trump's executive order of August 6, 2020. The order prohibited the usage of TikTok in five stages, the first being the prohibition of downloading the application. On September 27, 2020, a preliminary injunction was issued by Judge Carl J. Nichols blocking enforcement of that executive order. The lawsuit, by then captioned TikTok v. Biden, was dismissed in July 2021, following the Biden Administration's rescission of the executive order.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Censorship of TikTok</span> Restriction of access to TikTok by governments and organizations

Many countries have imposed past or ongoing restrictions on the video sharing social network TikTok. Bans from government devices usually stem from national security concerns over potential access of data by the Chinese government. Other bans have cited children's well-being and offensive content such as pornography.

There are reports of TikTok censoring political content related to China and other countries as well as content from minority creators. TikTok says that its initial content moderation policies, many of which are no longer applicable, were aimed at reducing divisiveness and were not politically motivated.

In 2020, the United States government announced that it was considering banning the Chinese social media platform TikTok upon a request from then-president Donald Trump, who viewed the app as a national security threat. The result was that TikTok owner ByteDance—which initially planned on selling a small portion of TikTok to an American company—agreed to divest TikTok to prevent a ban in the United States and in other countries where restrictions are also being considered due to privacy concerns, which themselves are mostly related to its ownership by a firm based in China.

The blackout challenge is an internet challenge based around the choking game, which deprives the brain of oxygen. It gained widespread attention on TikTok in 2021, primarily among children. It has been compared to other online challenges and hoaxes that have exclusively targeted a young audience. It has been linked to the deaths of at least twenty children.

TikTok has sparked concerns over potential user data collection and influence operations by the Chinese government, leading to restrictions and bans in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act</span> United States legislation

The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA) is an act of Congress that was signed into law on April 24, 2024, as part of Public Law 118-50. It would ban social networking services within 270 to 360 days if they are determined by the president of the United States and relevant provisions to be a "foreign adversary controlled application"; the definition covers websites and application software, including mobile apps. The act explicitly applies to ByteDance Ltd. and its subsidiaries—including TikTok—without the need for additional determination. It ceases to be applicable if the foreign adversary controlled application is divested and no longer considered to be controlled by a foreign adversary of the United States.

<i>TikTok v. Garland</i> 2024 lawsuit against the US government

TikTok, et al. v. Garland is a lawsuit brought by social media company TikTok against the United States government. Chinese internet technology company ByteDance and its subsidiary TikTok allege that the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), an act of the U.S. Congress that bans certain apps unless sold by their owners, violates the Freedom of Speech Clause of the First Amendment, the Bill of Attainder Clause of Article I, Section IX, and the Takings Clause and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment by imposing an unfeasible deadline for divestment, effectively removing the app.

<i>Anderson v. TikTok</i> 2024 United States Third Circuit Court of Appeals case

Anderson v. TikTok, 2:22-cv-01849,, is a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in which the court held that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), 47 U.S.C. § 230, does not bar claims against TikTok, a video-sharing social media platform, regarding TikTok's recommendations to users via its algorithm.

HB 18 also known as Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment Act or just The SCOPE Act is an American law in Texas. The law requires internet platforms to verify the age of a parent or guardian of accounts if they are signed in as under 18. It also requires parental consent before collecting the data on minors under 18 years of age. Which is an increase from the age set at the federal level under COPPA which is 13. It also requires platforms to block and filter if the content promotes suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, substance abuse, stalking, bullying, or harassment, or grooming.

References

  1. ↑ "Tencent and Toutiao come out swinging at each other". Archived from the original on 24 May 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  2. ↑ "Tencent sues Toutiao for alleged defamation, demands 1 yuan and apology". Today . Archived from the original on 11 October 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  3. ↑ Jiang, Sijia (1 June 2018). "Tencent sues Toutiao for alleged defamation, demands 1 yuan and apology". Reuters. Archived from the original on 11 October 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  4. ↑ Yijun, Yin (4 June 2018). "Tencent and ByteDance Take Ongoing Feud to Court". Sixth Tone . Archived from the original on 25 November 2020. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  5. ↑ "TikTok sent user data to China, US lawsuit claims". BBC News. 3 December 2019. Archived from the original on 5 December 2019. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  6. ↑ Montgomery, Blake (2 December 2019). "California Class-Action Lawsuit Accuses TikTok of Illegally Harvesting Data and Sending It to China". The Daily Beast . Archived from the original on 3 December 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  7. ↑ Chen, Angela (5 December 2019). "TikTok's second lawsuit in a week brings a US ban a shade closer". MIT Technology Review . Archived from the original on 22 August 2020. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  8. ↑ Narendra, Meera (4 December 2019). "#Privacy: TikTok found secretly transferring user data to China". Archived from the original on 22 August 2020. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  9. ↑ Allyn, Bobby (4 August 2020). "Class-Action Lawsuit Claims TikTok Steals Kids' Data And Sends It To China". NPR. Archived from the original on 22 August 2020. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  10. ↑ Allyn, Bobby (25 February 2021). "TikTok To Pay $92 Million To Settle Class-Action Suit Over 'Theft' Of Personal Data". NPR. Archived from the original on 26 February 2021. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
  11. ↑ "In Re: TikTok, Inc., Consumer Privacy Litigation, No. 1:2020cv04699 - Document 161 (N.D. Ill. 2021)". Justia Law. Archived from the original on 2024-10-03. Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  12. 1 2 3 McDaniel, Justine. "Indiana sues TikTok, claiming it exposes children to harmful content". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 18 December 2022. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
  13. 1 2 "TikTok sued by Indiana over security and safety concerns". BBC News. 8 December 2022. Archived from the original on 11 October 2023. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  14. 1 2 "Indiana judge dismisses state's lawsuit against TikTok that alleged child safety, privacy concerns". AP News. 2023-11-29. Archived from the original on 2024-10-03. Retrieved 2024-09-08.
  15. ↑ "French families sue TikTok over alleged failure to remove harmful content". Reuters . November 4, 2024. Retrieved November 4, 2024.
  16. ↑ Armstrong, Kathryn (November 4, 2024). "French families sue TikTok over harmful content". BBC News . Retrieved November 6, 2024.
  17. ↑ Dunne, James (12 May 2021). "Why a Canadian actor is suing social media giant TikTok's parent company". CBC News. Archived from the original on 13 May 2021. Retrieved 13 May 2021.
  18. ↑ Kastrenakes, Jacob (25 May 2021). "TikTok changes text-to-speech voice after voice actor sues". The Verge. Archived from the original on 7 August 2022. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  19. ↑ Culatto, John (2 June 2021). "Dutch parents sue TikTok for €1.4 billion". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 4 June 2021. Retrieved 10 June 2021.
  20. ↑ "WAMCA case: SOMI v TikTok". ploum.nl. Archived from the original on 2024-10-03. Retrieved 2024-09-08.
  21. ↑ Duffy, Clare (2 August 2024). "US government sues TikTok for allegedly violating children's privacy law | CNN Business". CNN. Archived from the original on 3 October 2024. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  22. ↑ Stempel, Jonathan; Shepardson, David (October 3, 2024). "Texas sues TikTok for violating children's privacy". Reuters . Retrieved October 3, 2024.
  23. ↑ "TikTok is designed to be addictive to kids and causes them harm, US states' lawsuits say". Associated Press . 2024-10-08. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
  24. ↑ Goodman, Sylvia (October 18, 2024). "Kentucky TikTok suit says company considered using Ky. creators to sway Sen. Mitch McConnell". NPR . Retrieved October 19, 2024.
  25. ↑ Carville, Olivia (30 November 2022). "TikTok's Viral Challenges Keep Luring Young Kids to Their Deaths". Bloomberg Businessweek . Archived from the original on 30 November 2022. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  26. ↑ Clark, Mitchell (7 July 2022). "The TikTok 'blackout challenge' has now allegedly killed seven kids". The Verge. Archived from the original on 8 July 2022. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  27. 1 2 "ANDERSON v. TIKTOK, INC., 2:22-cv-01849 - CourtListener.com". CourtListener. Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  28. 1 2 Pierson, Brendan (October 27, 2022). "TikTok immune from lawsuit over girl's death from 'blackout challenge' -judge". Reuters. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
  29. ↑ Raymond, Nate (August 28, 2024). "TikTok must face lawsuit over 10-year-old girl's death, US court rules". Reuters. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
  30. ↑ "Anderson v. TikTok Inc, No. 22-3061 (3d Cir. 2024)". Justia Law. Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  31. ↑ "TikTok's 'blackout' challenge linked to deaths of 20 children in 18 months – report". The Independent. 2022-12-01. Archived from the original on 2024-10-03. Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  32. ↑ "Black creators built TikTok. But Black employees say they experienced 'toxicity and racism'". CNN. September 21, 2023. Archived from the original on March 15, 2024. Retrieved February 10, 2024.
  33. 1 2 "Former TikTok executive sues the company for alleged gender and age discrimination". CNN. February 9, 2024. Archived from the original on March 15, 2024. Retrieved February 10, 2024.
  34. 1 2 Trivedi, Upmanyu (2024-08-28). "TikTok Sued in UK by Content Moderator Alleging Toxic Workplace". BNN Bloomberg. Retrieved 2024-09-08.
  35. ↑ Avila, Joseph De (May 22, 2024). "Nebraska Sues TikTok for Allegedly Harming Minors" . The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on 2024-05-22. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  36. ↑ Benson, Brannon & Lampe 2024, p. 1.
  37. ↑ Maheshwari, Sapna (December 6, 2024). "TikTok Loses Bid to Overturn Law Forcing a Ban or Sale". The New York Times . Retrieved December 6, 2024.
  38. ↑ Hadero, Haleluya (December 6, 2024). "Federal appeals court upholds law requiring sale or ban of TikTok in the US". Associated Press. Retrieved December 6, 2024.
  39. ↑ Vanian, Jonathan; Mangan, Dan (December 6, 2024). "Appeals court upholds law ordering China-based ByteDance to sell TikTok or face U.S. ban". CNBC. Retrieved December 6, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.