Vermont has filed a consumer-protection lawsuit against TikTok, saying the social media company created a platform that is addictive and harmful to teens — then lied about and downplayed the risks it poses to young users.
The complaint, filed by Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark, alleges that TikTok’s slot machine-like interface is “a strategic decision that has allowed it to effectively trap young users into cycles of excessive use.” The platform’s live-streaming feature, TikTok LIVE, has resulted in sexual and financial exploitation of youth, the suit says.
“TikTok profits from addicting kids and teens to their platform, and that is by design,” Clark said on Tuesday. “The time has come to end this harmful practice and restore young people’s mental and physical health.”
The complaint asks that the company make substantive changes in how it operates and seeks monetary relief to address the harms the app has caused. It notes that rates of depression, anxiety and feelings of isolation have increased among Vermont youths in recent years.
Twelve other states and Washington, D.C., also filed separate lawsuits against TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, on Tuesday. Seven additional states have filed similar suits in recent months.
More than 60 percent of all U.S. teens use TikTok, with almost 1 in 5 saying they’re on the app “almost constantly,” according to a 2023 Pew Research Center study. In Vermont, 30 percent of Vermont high school students spend five or more hours a day in front of screens, including smartphones and social media platforms, according to the 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
In a statement on X on Tuesday, the company wrote that the claims made in the slew of state lawsuits were “inaccurate and misleading.”
“We’re proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we’ve done to protect teens and we will continue to update and improve our product,” TikTok’s statement reads. “We’ve endeavored to work with the Attorneys General for over two years, and it is incredibly disappointing they have taken this step rather than work with us on constructive solutions to industrywide challenges.” TikTok has had its fair share of trouble in recent months. In April, President Joe Biden signed into law a TikTok ban, which says the platform can only continue to operate in the U.S. if ByteDance sells the app to a U.S.-approved firm. The company is appealing the ban.
In August, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against TikTok and ByteDance for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
This isn’t the first time that AG Clark has sued a social media company. A year ago, Vermont filed a complaint in state court against Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, for its role in the youth mental health crisis. The suit alleges that Meta designed Instagram to maximize young people’s time on the platform, leading to compulsive and excessive use. For years, the complaint alleges, Meta studied teen brains and designed Instagram to use neurological and cognitive vulnerabilities to create addiction in young users. In September, Meta announced the introduction of new features on Instagram intended to protect young people, including special “teen accounts” that are automatically set to private for users under age 18 and don’t allow notifications between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m, as well as additional parental supervision tools.
Last month, Clark was among a coalition of more than 40 attorneys general who signed off on a letter to congressional leaders asking them to put warning labels on social media platforms. The letter endorsed the recommendation made in June by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who said there should be warnings on social media, akin to those on cigarette packages, stating that the platforms are “associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.”
“As State Attorneys General, we sometimes disagree about important issues,” the letter reads, “but all of us share an abiding concern for the safety of the kids in our jurisdictions — and algorithm-driven social media platforms threaten that safety.”
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