The state of Arkansas filed two lawsuits against TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance and a third lawsuit against Meta, on the companies’ alleged violation of the state’s deceptive trade practices act.
It further claimed that the social media companies were misleading consumers about the safety of children on their platforms and the protection of users’ private data.
TikTok A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing?
“TikTok is a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” one of the lawsuits, filed in state court, said. “As long as TikTok is permitted to deceive and mislead Arkansas consumers about the risks to their data, those consumers and their privacy are easy prey.”
Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Attorney General Tim Griffin, also a Republican, publicized the complaint as TikTok is confronted with increasing questions regarding the safety of its users’ data. Both the FBI and officials at the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance could share TikTok user data with China’s authoritarian government.
One of the claims states that TikTok isn’t taking proper steps to protect minors who use the platform from inappropriate content, including sexual content and material depicting drug or alcohol use.
“We have watched over the past decade as one social media company after another has exploited our kids for profit and escaped government oversight,” Sanders said in a statement released by her office. “My administration will not tolerate that failed status quo.”
Meta Manipulating Facebook?
The lawsuit against Meta accuses the company of manipulating Facebook to maximize the amount of time that young people spend on the platform, which it says has helped fuel mental health problems among the state’s youth.
Meta on Tuesday outlined steps it has taken to protect teens on its platforms, including age- verification technology and technology that finds and removes content related to suicide, self-injury, or eating disorders.
“These are complex issues, but we will continue working with parents, experts, and regulators such as the state attorneys general to develop new tools, features, and policies that meet the needs of teens and their families,” Antigone Davis, Meta’s head of safety, said in a statement.
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