United States of America: Announced lawsuit by Indiana AG against Tiktok over alleged unfair and deceptive statements regarding content displayed to minors

On 7 December 2022, the Attorney General (AG) of Indiana filed a public lawsuit in the Superior Court of Allen County against Tiktok and its parent company Bytedance. The lawsuit alleges that Tiktok intentionally misleads its users and their parents by promoting that the content displayed on their platform is safe for children between the ages of 13 to 17 years old. According to the lawsuit, the Tiktok algorithm promotes content depicting "alcohol, tobacco, and drugs; sexual content, nudity, and suggestive themes; and intense profanity" to users registered as 13 years old. The AG noted that Tiktok describes the display of such content as "infrequent/mild", whereas the lawsuit alleges that the platform continuously and vigorously promotes such content. The lawsuit seeks a court injunction against TikTok to stop misrepresenting the frequency and severity of the content displayed to minors and penalties for unfair and deceptive conduct.