Utah sues TikTok over claims it purposefully turned state’s children into social media addicts

Utah has become the third US state to file a lawsuit against TikTok, claiming that the app intentionally got the state’s children addicted.

“The social media giant illegally tricks children into using it in an addictive and unhealthy way, misrepresents the integrity of the app, and deceptively portrays itself as independent from its China-based parent company,” Utah officials alleged.

Republican Gov. Spencer Cox announced the lawsuit on Tuesday, joining Indiana and Arkansas that have made similar claims.

The lawsuit seeks to force TikTok to change its “destructive behavior” with fines and penalties to fund education efforts and address harm to Utah’s children.

Officials are also seeking to impose a digital curfew on minors, require parental consent to sign up for social media apps and force companies to verify the ages of all Utah users.

However, not all Americans agree with the TikTok ban and agree with the social media platform that such a law violates their freedom of expression.

“The social media giant illegally tricks children into using it in an addictive and unhealthy way, misrepresents the integrity of the app, and deceptively portrays itself as independent from its China-based parent company,” Utah officials alleged.

Technology companies will be required to give parents access to their children’s accounts, including private messages.

A TikTok spokesperson told DailyMail.com: “TikTok has industry-leading safeguards for young people, including an automatic 60-minute time limit for under-18 users and parental controls for teen accounts.

“We will continue to work to keep our community safe by addressing industry-wide challenges.”

Officials said TikTok’s “behavior” in the state is troubling because it has the highest percentage of children per capita in the country — more than 27 percent of Utah’s population is under 18.

“We will no longer tolerate TikTok misleading parents that its app is safe for children,” Governor Cox said. “Social media companies should be held accountable for the harm they cause.

“Experts — from the U.S. Surgeon General and behavioral science researchers to parents and teens — agree that social media is impacting our children’s mental health, and it’s time to intervene.”

“The social media giant illegally tricks children into using it in an addictive and unhealthy way, misrepresents the integrity of the app, and deceptively portrays itself as independent from its China-based parent company, ByteDance,” Utah officials alleged.

TikTok’s goal in turning so many young people into addicts is to divert their attention “to advertising dollars,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit in Utah is similar to the lawsuit the state of Indiana filed against TikTok in December. This case is pending in state court.

Arkansas sued TikTok and Meta, Facebook’s parent company, in March “for pushing addictive platforms.”

Republican Governor Spencer Cox announced the lawsuit on Tuesday, joining Indiana and Arkansas that have made similar claims.

On Thursday, a judge will hear arguments in TikTok’s lawsuit seeking to block Montana’s first-ever ban on TikTok before it takes effect on January 1.

The Montana Legislature approved legislation to ban TikTok, due to spying concerns.

However, TikTok sued the state in May over its statewide ban, claiming it violated their First Amendment rights.

Montana is the first state to try to ban TikTok — a maneuver that has already led to multiple federal lawsuits alleging unfair censorship — despite Beijing’s appalling free speech record.

But many Americans say that banning a social media platform is fundamentally un-American.

“Fighting for TikTok doesn’t mean fighting for an app,” Gavin Dees, a TikToker who has more than a million followers but has not revealed how much money he makes, told DailyMail.com. She fights for the right to speak.

“It’s a struggle for even people I may not believe in quite the same way.” I believe in your right to believe that and talk about it that way. And TikTok allows this in a way we’ve never seen before.

However, on the other side are those who favor a ban — a CBS poll in March found that 61 percent of adults want to see the app disappear.

“I think, for Congress, the privacy issue is valid,” Deese said.

“But my problem with the whole thing is what made me feel one way about it, where we assume that TikTok, or this company (ByteDance), is behaving in a way that other platforms, like Twitter and Facebook, are not doing.”

“Things have been proven (regarding Twitter and Facebook), so the hypocrisy now is that you don’t care about privacy.”

“(Congress cares) about something deeper about this platform, even though you might be talking here about privacy and data, and all these different things, like there are other platforms that have been doing this for years and a decade.”

Diess also said that although TikTok’s story is that it’s a kids app, at least 60 percent of its followers are over 34 years old.