Minnesota filed a state-court lawsuit alleging TikTok violates Minnesota deceptive trade practices and consumer fraud laws by using algorithms that prey on young users and foster compulsive consumption of short videos. The legal action joins roughly 24 states pursuing similar claims after earlier bipartisan investigations into TikTok's effects on minors. A middle-school teacher reported correlations between increased TikTok use and spikes in student depression, anxiety, anger, lowered self-esteem, and reduced attention spans linked to quick gratification from short videos. The case arises amid ongoing U.S. concerns about TikTok's Chinese ownership and national efforts to secure or alter its ownership and data practices.
Minnesota on Tuesday joined a wave of states suing TikTok, alleging the social media giant preys on young people with addictive algorithms that trap them into becoming compulsive consumers of its short videos. "This isn't about free speech. I'm sure they're gonna holler that," Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said at a news conference. "It's actually about deception, manipulation, misrepresentation. This is about a company knowing the dangers, and the dangerous effects of its product, but making and taking no steps to mitigate those harms or inform users of the risks."
The lawsuit, filed in state court, alleges that TikTok is violating Minnesota laws against deceptive trade practices and consumer fraud. It follows a flurry of lawsuits filed by more than a dozen states last year alleging the popular short-form video app is designed to be addictive to kids and harms their mental health. Minnesota's case brings the total to about 24 states, Ellison's office said.
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