The State of Arkansas’ lawsuit against social media giant TikTok is moving forward in Union County Circuit Court.
In March Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office filed a lawsuit against Chinese-based company ByteDance — the corporation that owns TikTok — alleging the social media platform violated Arkansas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
Among other things, the lawsuit argues that TikTok failed to fully disclose that TikTok is subject to Chinese law — including “laws that mandate secret cooperation with intelligence activities of the People’s Republic of China.”
The lawsuit also alleges that TikTok “routinely exposes Arkansas consumers’ data, without their knowledge, to access and exploitation by the Chinese Government and Communist Party” and that “TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has admitted to using data gathered through TikTok to surveil Americans.”
With a billion users worldwide and 135 million in the U.S., TikTok is considered by some to be the most popular social media platform in the world.
The A.G.’s complaint against TikTok concludes by asking the court to stop TikTok’s actions and award the state up to $10,000 per violation of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act in accordance with state law.
You can read the entire complaint here.
This lawsuit between Arkansas and TikTok is separate from the larger lawsuit over Arkansas’ Social Media Safety Act.
Act 689, the Social Media Safety Act of 2023 by Sen. Tyler Dees (R – Siloam Springs) and Rep. Jon Eubanks (R – Paris), is a good law that requires major social media companies to use age verification to ensure minors do not access social media platforms without parental consent. A social media company that violated the law could be held liable.
On June 29 the trade association NetChoice filed a lawsuit in federal court in Arkansas on behalf of its members — which include tech giants such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, SnapChat, Pinterest, and TikTok.
The lawsuit alleges that Arkansas’ Social Media Safety Act is unconstitutional and should be struck down. The ACLU has filed a brief opposing the Social Media Safety Act as part of that lawsuit as well.
Despite employing tens of thousands of content moderators, TikTok’s algorithm repeatedly has been shown to inundate teenagers with videos about eating disorders, body image, self-harm, and suicide. It’s good to see the State of Arkansas taking steps to stop TikTok from preying on children and prevent it from giving sensitive user data to the Chinese Communist Party.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
