The social network Tiktok is facing a lawsuit, after two girls died during the execution of the "fainting challenge" that went viral on the popular social network.
According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, the lawsuit alleges that the girls to 8-year-old Laney Erica Walton and 9-year-old Jailen Arroyo found their deaths while mimicking an act they watched in Tiktok videos, in which young men tried to lose consciousness .
According to the Los Angeles Times, the lawsuit was filed last Friday in the Los Angeles Supreme Court, according to which the app's algorithm suggested the young girls watch these videos.
Walton's body was found in the room of her home in Texas.
Police took the deceased's phone and tablet for questioning, and later informed her stepmother that her daughter was watching strangulation videos on the "Brifit" network - that is, over and over again.
Arroyo was found in the basement of her Milwaukee home.
She was taken to a hospital, but due to a loss of brain function was disconnected from the resuscitation machine, according to the report.
This is not the first case of young deaths after participating in the challenge.
10-year-old Naila Anderson also died in similar circumstances.
Her mother sued Tiktok and her parent company BateDance last May.
In addition, the deaths of four children aged 10 to 14 from Australia, Italy, Colorado and Oklahoma were also linked to the dangerous challenge.
Young people are easily influenced by the social network,
"Tiktok knew without a doubt that the deadly suffocation challenge was spreading in her app, and that her algorithm had targeted children and offered them to watch these videos," a representative from the Complaints Center for Victims of Social Networking told the Times.
According to the complaint, the company "knew or should have known that the lack of immediate action to prevent the spread of the suffocation challenge would result in injuries and death, especially among children."
A representative of Tiktok told the Washington Post, in response to Anderson's mother's claim, that "the disturbing challenge, which seems to have been exposed to people from non-Tiktok sources, preceded his appearance on the social network in question and he was never a trend in Tiktok ...".
He added that the company he represents "is committed to the safety of its users" and that it "removes any content related to the challenge, if any."
In recent years, the network has been a platform for disseminating disturbing content and challenges among children and adolescents.
Challenges included climbing heights, consuming medication for hallucinations and eating laundry capsules.
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