One day after suing Facebook and Instagram (Meta), Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita and his team on Wednesday continued fighting to hold Chinese-owned TikTok accountable in two separate lawsuits that assert violations of Indiana law.
In one complaint, AG Rokita and his team accuse TikTok of luring children to inappropriate content through deceptive labeling. In another, the Attorney General targets TikTok’s collection of reams of data on app users that ultimately can be shared with the Chinese Communist Party.
Appearing in Allen County Superior Court, AG Rokita’s team demonstrated why Indiana’s lawsuits against TikTok are necessary to protect Hoosiers.
Rokita
“TikTok’s false, deceptive and misleading practices pose a clear danger to Indiana users of this app,” AG Rokita said after the hearing. “TikTok’s practices represent the very sort of conduct that Indiana’s consumer laws were written to prevent and prohibit.”
The Allen County court held Wednesday’s hearing to consider TikTok’s motion to dismiss Indiana’s lawsuits. That decision is expected later this fall.
“This company has bamboozled parents into thinking the TikTok platform is safe for children by claiming the app contains only ‘infrequent’ and ‘mild’ sexual content, profanity or drug references,” AG Rokita said. “In reality, TikTok contains such material in spades.”
In addition, AG Rokita said TikTok has deceived app users into believing that their information is protected from the Chinese government and Communist Party when, in fact, TikTok users’ data is subject to Chinese law and may be intercepted by the Chinese government.
In a similar move to protect children from predatory Big Tech tactics, AG Rokita’s office joined 41 other states Tuesday in suing Meta for misleading young users. Specifically, Rokita and the bipartisan attorneys general cite deceptive data collection practices and Meta’s own in-house studies that found their algorithms can addict children to the app.
“In multiple ways, TikTok represents a clear and distinct danger to Hoosiers that is hiding in plain sight in their own pockets,” AG Rokita said.
AG Rokita seeks emergency injunctive relief and civil penalties. The state is assisted in these cases by outside counsel Cooper & Kirk PLLC.