Indiana sues TikTok for offering adult content to children and for its Chinese connection

Donald Trump threatened to ban TikTok in the United States when he was president.

Now, several states with governors from the Republican Party have increased the pressure on the popular social network owned by the Chinese company ByteDance with a series of decisions, including two lawsuits filed by Indiana in which it accuses the social network of offering children and teens content only appropriate for adults and violating data protection regulations by allowing the Chinese government to access user information.

“The TikTok app is a malicious and dangerous threat unleashed on unsuspecting Indiana consumers by a Chinese company that knows full well the harm it inflicts on users,” Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said.

“With this pair of lawsuits, we hope to force TikTok to stop its false, fraudulent and deceptive practices, which violate Indiana law,” he added.

The first lawsuit alleges that TikTok has lured children to the platform through a series of misleading claims that the app only contains “rare/mild” sexual content, profanity, or drug references, when in fact the app is riddled with it. of extreme examples of this type of material, according to the prosecutor.

“TikTok's algorithm promotes a variety of inappropriate content to users ages 13-17 across the United States.

The TikTok algorithm offers abundant content on alcohol, tobacco and drugs;

sexual content, nudity and suggestive themes;

and serious profanity.

TikTok promotes this content regardless of the age of the user, which means it is available to registered users as young as 13 years old,” the lawsuit states.

An essential part of TikTok's business model is presenting the app as safe and appropriate for children ages 13 to 17, the attorney general says.

The lawsuit cites reports linking the use of the social network to problems for adolescents, including depression and eating disorders.

The second lawsuit alleges that TikTok has large amounts of highly sensitive data and personal information about Indiana consumers and has misled them into believing that this information is protected from the Chinese government and the Communist Party.

“TikTok and its algorithm are owned by ByteDance Ltd., a Chinese company subject to Chinese law, including laws that require secret cooperation with Chinese intelligence activities.

The Chinese government and Communist Party have a demonstrated interest in the type of data that TikTok collects about its users, which it may use to spy on, blackmail, and coerce those users, or to further develop China's artificial intelligence capabilities, or to any other number of purposes that serve the national security and economic interests of China,

Both lawsuits ask the court to find that the social network's actions "are unfair, abusive, and misleading to Indiana consumers," that TikTok be forced to cease their actions, and that TikTok be imposed fines.

Parallel to the Indiana lawsuit, the governor of Texas, Republican Gregg Abott, has banned the use of TikTok on devices owned by the State and its agencies.

It follows in the footsteps of the federal government, as the Departments of State, Defense and Homeland Security have already issued similar bans.

In a letter to the heads of the different agencies in Texas, Abott points out that "the threat of the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate the United States continues to grow on multiple fronts" and stresses that "under China's National Intelligence Law of 2017 , all companies are obliged to assist China in intelligence work, including data sharing.

“Due to these threats, effective immediately, every state agency in Texas will prohibit its officials and employees from downloading or using TikTok on any of their government-issued devices.

This ban on TikTok extends to all State-provided cell phones, laptops, tablets, desktop computers, and other Internet-capable devices,” ordered the Governor of Texas.

Counted exceptions will be allowed, such as the use of TikTok for police investigations.

Abott also requests a plan to avoid vulnerabilities due to the use of TikTok on private devices of public employees.

In what appears to be a coordinated push, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan also this week issued an emergency cybersecurity directive to ban the use of certain Chinese and Russian-influenced products and platforms for the executive branch of state government, including TikTok.

“These entities present an unacceptable level of cybersecurity risk to the state, and may be involved in activities such as cyber espionage, surveillance of government entities, and inappropriate collection of sensitive personal information,” he states.

So has the governor of South Carolina, Henry McMaster.

"Protecting our State's critical cyber infrastructure from foreign and domestic threats is key to ensuring the health, safety and well-being of our citizens and businesses," he said in a letter to the executive director of the Department of State Administration, Marcia Adams.

“Federal law enforcement and national security officials have warned that TikTok poses a clear and present danger to its users, and a growing bipartisan coalition in Congress is pushing to ban access to TikTok in the United States,” she adds.

South Dakote Gov. Kristi Noem led the way last month with a similar measure approved via executive order.

“South Dakota will not participate in the intelligence gathering operations of nations that hate us,” she declared in a statement.

“The Chinese Communist Party uses the information it collects on TikTok to manipulate the American people, and they collect data from the devices that access the platform.”

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