Indiana, US: The Indiana Attorney General filed a lawsuit against the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, claiming that it deceives its users, particularly young children, about the amount of objectionable content and the security of user data.
Republican Attorney General Mr. Todd Rokita claimed that while the social video app says it is safe for users 13 years and older, the app contains “salacious and inappropriate content” available to young users “for unlimited periods of time, day and night, in an effort to line TikTok’s pockets with billions of dollars from U.S. consumers.”
In a further complaint, Mr. Rokita claimed that although the app has access to users’ sensitive and private information, but it misleads users into thinking that information is protected.
ByteDance, a Chinese business that relocated its headquarters to Singapore in 2020, is the owner of TikTok. Republicans have made the app a target because they believe the Chinese government has access to user information including browsing history and location. The programme is not allowed to be used on military devices by the US armed forces.
The app gained huge popularity with a nearly addictive scroll of videos, but a report from the nonprofit Global Witness and the Cybersecurity for Democracy team at New York University in October 2020 found that it has struggled to detect ads that contain blatant misinformation about U.S. elections.
Additionally, TikTok is running into legal problems globally. “In the UK, the social media company could face a $29 million fine for failing to protect children’s privacy when they are using the platform,” as per the reports.
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