Almost everyone will have the same story when it comes to their use of TikTok. It starts off with you rubbishing it and saying it is for younger people, then before you know it you are still lying awake at 2am watching reruns of Eastenders from 1995 in three-minute-long parts.
The app was effectively a replacement for Vine when it came onto the scene in 2016 and it really exploded in popularity during the Covid lockdowns when there wasn't much else to do but perform silly dances to your five followers and hope it somehow goes viral.
By April 2020, it had reached two billion downloads and in 2021 it was the most popular website on the planet, ranking above Google for the first time.
However, there has been a lot of controversy with the app as well and it is set to continue with more than a dozen states in America suing the social media platform.
TikTok have described it as ‘disappointing’ and ‘misleading’ but what are they being sued for?
What is the lawsuit?
The lawsuit was filed in New York on Tuesday and says: “TikTok knows that compulsive use of and other harmful effects of its platform are wreaking havoc on the mental health of millions of American children and teenagers.
"Despite such documented knowledge, TikTok continually misrepresents its platform as 'safe' [and] 'appropriate for children and teenagers'."
Some of the addictive features highlighted included around-the-clock notifications that lead to poor sleeping patterns, autoplay that leads to spending more time on the app as well as beauty filters that ‘lower young user’s self-esteem’.
It has also been stated by New York Attorney General Letitia James that many youngsters across the United States had died as a result of TikTok challenges.
One of the examples cited discusses a 15-year-old boy who died in Mahattan while ‘Subway Surfing’, which is a trend where people ‘surf’ on top of a moving subway car.
Another is the ‘Kia Challenge’ which showed users how to hack the ignition and steal Kia and Hyundai cars and has led to thousands of thefts and the deaths for four teenagers who were killed in a crash in October 2022.
Police believe it was linked to the challenge because the Kia Forte was stolen in New York and had damage consistent with descriptions from the challenge.
Attorney General James said: “Young people are struggling with their mental health because of addictive social media platforms like TikTok. TikTok claims that their platform is safe for young people, but that is far from true.
“In New York and across the country, young people have died or gotten injured doing dangerous TikTok challenges and many more are feeling more sad, anxious, and depressed because of TikTok’s addictive features.
“Today, we are suing TikTok to protect young people and help combat the nationwide youth mental health crisis. Kids and families across the country are desperate for help to address this crisis, and we are doing everything in our power to protect them.”
It’s also suggested they profit from the data of kids under the age of 13 and their claims about the effectiveness of safety tools are false.
Who is behind the lawsuit?
New York and California are leading the lawsuit, but it also included Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont and Washington state.
What other issues do TikTok have in America?
TikTok has been facing the threat of ban, and has been prohibited across a lot of places in America since 2020.
The US army and navy banned TikTok on government devices after it was labelled a security risk by the defence department.
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Donald Trump also viewed it as a security threat and it was threatened with a complete ban before ByteDance, the Chinese company which owns the platform, agreed to divest.
That has continued since and the company are again fighting the risk of it being banned in America completely unless they are willing to sell up.
Is it a security risk?
Aside from America’s ban, many other countries view it in the same way – including the UK.
The UK government announced a ban on it on all electronic devices used by ministers and other employees because of the app’s handling of user data.
The BBC also told all employees to remove it from their devices unless it is being used for work purposes.
French president Emmanuel Macron has called the app "deceptively innocent" and reportedly spoke of his desire to regulate the app, while NATO also banned it from their devices citing security reasons.
Elsewhere in Europe, places such as Ireland, Austria, Latvia, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway and more have also issued similar restrictions.
In China and Hong Kong, it is restricted on devices brought into the country and used on a local network.
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