Arizona Attorney General (AG) Kris Mayes has filed a consumer protection lawsuit against the social media giant TikTok for alleged violations of the Arizona Fraud Act.
The Context
AG Mayes' suit alleges that TikTok engineers its platform to maximize compulsive use of the app among minors. For example, TikTok features systems such as auto-play, push notifications, filters that alter appearances to a harmful degree, reward loops that feature harmful content, infinite scrolling, and social-comparison metrics.
What this means is that such features allow the company to profit off of minors' data since they are on it for so long.
AG Mayes also alleges that TikTok failed to disclose these harmful features and that its content moderation system fails to adequately protect minors from extreme content. Moreover, TikTok allegedly fails to adequately prevent users under the age of 13 from creating accounts, and the algorithm fails to prevent the circulation of child sexual abuse material through "post‑in‑private" accounts promoted by the algorithm.
What Mayes is Saying
"We allege that TikTok has repeatedly and knowingly violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act by designing one of the most addictive products ever targeted at children—and by concealing the severe mental, physical, and emotional‑health risks these design choices create," the Arizona Attorney General said in her press release, adding, "TikTok touts its supposed safety measures to convince parents that this product is safe for young people. But behind the company's marketing is a platform engineered to exploit the vulnerabilities of developing brains, pushing Arizona kids toward compulsive use, harmful content, and dangerous behaviors while failing to protect them from adults who use the social media platform to groom or solicit minors. It's unconscionable."
Additionally, Mayes emphasized that "Arizona's children are paying the price for TikTok's pursuit of profit. We will not tolerate a global corporation putting our kids' health, privacy, and safety at risk in order to increase advertising revenue. This lawsuit, like the landmark lawsuit against Meta, is necessary to stop TikTok's unlawful practices, hold the company accountable, and protect Arizona families from further harm."
