TikTok Turns a Blind Eye on Live Crimes—Lawsuit

HIGHLIGHTS:

• A lawsuit filed by the state of Utah claimed that TikTok turned a blind eye to criminal acts on its Live feature
• TikTok initiated 2 probes in 2022 and 2023 to look into the allegations
• The lawsuits came a few days before a decision could be made on whether TikTok will be forcefully sold to an American firm or get banned

Social media giant TikTok has long known that its popular live-streaming platform encourages criminal acts, including exploitation of minors, yet it turned a blind eye because it profited significantly from them, a lawsuit filed by the state of Utah claimed on Friday.

A report by Japan Times, citing the unredacted lawsuit, alleged that TikTok initiated internal investigations called Project Jupiter and Project Meramec in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Both probes aimed to look into allegations of illegal acts facilitated through its live feature.

Launched in 2021, the lawsuit claimed that Project Jupiter found that criminals used its live feature to launder money, sell drugs, and fund terrorism, including the Islamic State.

In 2022, it launched what it called Project Meramec which was said to have uncovered how hundreds of thousands of minors bypassed TikTok Live’s minimum age restrictions.

An investigative report from Forbes also found that adult men regularly used TikTok’s livestream feature to lure teenagers to perform sexual acts in exchange for digital gifts that can be converted to cash.

In December 2023, an internal investigation was conducted and said to have documented what TikTok admitted was “the cruelty” of maintaining live with its current risks for minors on the app.

TikTok faces lawsuit from dozens of states

The lawsuit filed by Utah was just one of the charges filed against the company, as it also faces separate charges from Vermont, New Hampshire, Kentucky, and the District of Columbia, over allegations that the social media giant financially and psychologically harmed minors.

For its part, A TikTok spokesperson said that the lawsuit “ignores the number of proactive measures that TikTok has voluntarily implemented to support community safety and well-being.”

“Instead, the complaint cherry-picks misleading quotes and outdated documents and presents them out of context, which distorts our commitment to the safety of our community,” the representative said.

The complaint came two weeks prior to TikTok’s scheduled ban in the US over fears that the company could be using the personal information of some 170 million Americans or manipulating content people see related to key political and social issues.

Late last year, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance was given two options to exit the US market, including selling the company to a US-based firm or facing a ban.

Outgoing President Joe Biden last April signed a law authorizing the TikTok ban. It addressed concerns that TikTok could gather intelligence on American users and share it with the Chinese government. China and the US have long been engaged in an ongoing trade war, slapping tit-for-tat taxes on each other’s imports.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether to put the ban on hold on January 10 and is expected to rule quickly.