Here’s why Attorney General Andrea Campbell is suing TikTok

“Massachusetts will not tolerate a future where companies exploit the vulnerabilities of young people for profit,” Campbell said in a statement about the lawsuit.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell filed a lawsuit against popular social media app TikTok on Tuesday, accusing the company of purposely designing its platform to make young users addicted while marketing the platform as safe.

She joined Attorneys General in 12 states and the District of Columbia in suing TikTok Inc. The suits also name its parent company ByteDance Inc., as well as related companies TikTok LLC and ByteDance LLC.

In the 109-page suit, prosecutors allege TikTok knowingly harms a wide swath of its young users through the platform’s addictive framework and lack of user support.

Prosecutors have accused TikTok of knowingly exploiting and harming youth, willfully misrepresenting its platform, and being a public nuisance. Prosecutors want a jury trial, the lawsuit says.

Campbell said TikTok is driven by “greed” and created technology that causes its users to become “compulsive and addicted.”

“Massachusetts will not tolerate a future where companies exploit the vulnerabilities of young people for profit,” Campbell said.

“Mental and physical harms”: Details of the lawsuit against TikTok

Much of the suit is focused on how TikTok operates to hook users into the platform and generate profit. Prosecutors allege TikTok “unfairly and unconscionably” exploits its young users to keep them on the app for long periods of time. The suit said TikTok uses tactics the platform itself describe as “coercive design” to keep users scrolling for as long as possible.

In the suit, prosecutors point to information directly from TikTok as evidence for their claims. To compile the case against TikTok, court documents show, the Commonwealth entered a confidentiality agreement with the social media platform. The agreement redacted much of the information from TikTok in the suit, like findings from internal studies that allegedly prove the video-based platform purposefully does not support its users.

Prosecutors accuse TikTok of presenting themselves as a “safe” platform for young children, while knowingly using those coercive design features to hook young users. Features like push notifications, infinite scroll, autoplay, visible social validation metrics, and time-maximizing algorithms target young users’ vulnerabilities and “override their ability” to leave the app, according to the suit.

The suit said TikTok’s own records show an addictive effect on young users that has various “negative health impacts.” These impacts include “disrupted sleep, depression, ‘increased loneliness,’ ‘loss of analytical skills, memory formation, contextual thinking, conversational depth, empathy, and increased anxiety.'”

TikTok’s design features prey on the user’s social vulnerabilities, fear of missing out, need for validation, lack of ability to self-regulate, and “biochemical desire” for dopamine, the suit said.

The suit calls TikTok’s messaging “deceptive,” alleging the company reassured the public their platform was designed to protect young users while internally developing practices the company knew induced young users’ “addictive and habitual use of its platform.”

“The hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts youth spending excessive hours of time on TikTok’s platform are being subjected to mental and physical harms,” the suit said.

TikTok responds to lawsuit

TikTok issued a statement to Boston.com, denying all of the allegations in the suit.

“We strongly disagree with these claims, many of which we believe to be inaccurate and misleading,” a TikTok representative said. “We’re proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we’ve done to protect teens and we will continue to update and improve our product.”

TikTok’s statement listed some of the “protection” features the app implements, like default screen time limits and privacy for younger users. The statement said TikTok has tried working with various Attorneys General for around two years and called the suit “disappointing.”

Earlier this year, President Joe Biden signed a bill that would ban TikTok in the U.S. if China-based parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell the app.

“As TikTok internally admits, ‘[t]here are numerous [coercive design] features (Infinite scroll, auto-play, constant notifications) in the TikTok product experience’ that are ‘manipulative’ and do not ‘support users’ intentions on TikTok,’” the lawsuit said.