Chinese-Backed Temu has Until End of this Week to Respond to A.G. Griffin’s Deceptive Trade Allegations

Technology,

Online retailer Temu has until the end of this week to respond to Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s consumer protection lawsuit in Cleburne County Court.

Temu is an online shopping platform similar to Amazon or Walmart.com. In 2023, Temu was reported to be the most widely downloaded app in the U.S., and its multibillion-dollar marketing campaign — which included a Super Bowl ad in 2024 — contributed to its success.

But the Chinese-based tech giant has drawn criticism from security and privacy experts who are concerned that Temu does not value users’ privacy or protect sensitive information.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin sued Temu in 2024, alleging Temu uses bargain pricing as a lure so the company can secretly harvest users’ private information. The lawsuit alleges Temu’s phone app is able to access users’ precise locations as well as other installed apps, online accounts, microphones, and cameras. The platform can then funnel that sensitive information to computer servers that are subject to Chinese laws.

The A.G.’s lawsuit also alleges that the Temu app is able to bypass phone security systems, potentially granting Temu access to a user’s private messages.

The Arkansas Attorney General’s office says all of this is unconscionable under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which carries a penalty of $10,000 per violation.

Temu’s attorneys asked the judge presiding over the case to dismiss the lawsuit, but the judge presiding over the case denied that motion to dismiss and gave Temu’s attorneys until August 28 to respond to Attorney General’s lawsuit.

The attorney general’s lawsuit against Temu is important, because his arguments in the case are very similar to points the A.G.’s team has made in its separate lawsuits against TikTok — another widely popular internet platform owned by a Chinese company.

Family Council is not aware of any attorney general in America who is doing more to hold tech companies accountable than Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin.

As we always say, tech companies are more than just phone apps and websites. These are multibillion-dollar businesses, and the people who operate them have a responsibility to protect the people who use their platforms.

We appreciate Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office for continuing to pursue these cases so seriously in court.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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U.S. Senators Ask TikTok to Answer for its “Depraved” Safety Experiment on Children

Social Media, ,

Two U.S. senators are demanding answers from TikTok over a “depraved” experiment it ran that involved secretly withholding a safety feature from millions of users — including children — on its platform.

With an estimated one billion users worldwide — including upwards of 135 million in the U.S. — TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms on the planet. Its Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, has been valued at $300 billion.

But for years, TikTok has been under scrutiny for struggling to protect private user data from entities in China — including the Chinese Communist Party — and the platform has been accused of serving users a steady “diet of darkness” online.

TikTok’s attorneys and representatives have often denied or downplayed accusations against the platform, arguing the company takes safety very seriously. But a recent Bloomberg report shows that in 2022, the social media giant knowingly endangered teens and other users by disabling a key safety measure on TikTok’s algorithm for millions of users.

The LA Times says TikTok disabled the safety feature as part of an experiment to see how the feature affected user behavior. The news has prompted letters from at least two U.S. senators.

Last Thursday, U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) sent a letter demanding answers from TikTok.

The letter says TikTok failed to tell the public about “its depraved decision to intentionally withhold these protections from approximately 10 percent of its U.S. users—a control group that reportedly represented approximately 15 million Americans at the time.”

The letter says that in January of 2022, TikTok disabled safety features on 16-year-old Chase Nasca’s TikTok account, causing him to be inundated with “thousands of videos involving themes of sadness, hopelessness, loneliness, suicide, and self-harm” on TikTok.

The following month, Chase died by suicide.

The senators ask TikTok to provide detailed information about the secret experiment and any others TikTok has run.

Leaders in Arkansas have raised concerns about harmful content on TikTok for the past several years.

In 2023, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin filed a pair of consumer protection lawsuits against TikTok in state court.

The legal complaints call the TikTok app “a Chinese ‘Trojan Horse’ unleashed on unsuspecting American consumers,” and highlight how TikTok fails to protect private user data.

The Attorney General’s office argues that TikTok’s algorithm “force-feeds” objectionable content to users — including “illegal drug use, sex, violence, and self-harm.”

The A.G.’s team says that TikTok deceptively labeled its app as being appropriate for ages 13 and up when it really should have been rated 17+.

As we have said again and again, there is growing evidence that social media platforms may deliberately addict users, promote objectionable content, and put people’s personal information at risk.

Social media platforms are more than just phone apps or websites. These are multibillion-dollar businesses, and the adults who profit from them need to be held accountable when they harm innocent people.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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