United States of America: Announced lawsuit against TikTok and ByteDance for allegedly misleading its consumers about the nature of the platform's content (Case No. 12CV-23-65)

On 28 March 2023, Arkansas's Attorney General (AG) filed a lawsuit against TikTok, Inc., TikTok PTE. Ltd., ByteDance Inc., and ByteDance Ltd. for allegedly misleading consumers about the extent of safety and security of the platform. The AG argued that one of the main public messages that the platform promotes is that the safety of its young users is its main priority. According to the lawsuit, promoting that message is imperative to the platform's business model, as minors aged between 13 to 17 are its key demographic. The AG claims that while the platform insists the content displayed to minors is safe, it identified content containing "intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language" to be displayed on the platform. Finally, the AG alleges that the platform not only "ineffectively" keeps minors from such content but also allows and assists users in searching for mature topics through autocomplete suggestions. The AG asked the court for a permanent injunction to require TikTok to stop issuing deceptive statements regarding the content displayed to minors and civil penalties.