According to this, streams on TikTok Live were used to exploit children A new unamended lawsuit Filed by Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes. The lawsuit states that TikTok was not only aware that TikTok Lives was exposing minors to adult-related messages, but the company also directly profited from certain exchanges through TikTok Live’s virtual gifting system. Have earned.
after a investigation by forbes According to the lawsuit, TikTok conducted its review in TikTok Live under the name “Project Meramec.” The company found that “hundreds of thousands of children” were following TikTok’s age restrictions, hosting livestreams and interacting with adults.
Because TikTok keeps a portion of the sales of digital gifts in livestreams, the company was technically making money on “transactional gifts” rather than “nudity and sexual activity” occurring during the stream. And because TikTok’s algorithm favors livestreams where virtual gifts are being exchanged, the lawsuit says, some of these sexually exploitative streams were also more widely distributed than otherwise.
The lawsuit details another TikTok investigation, “Project Jupiter”, which looked into whether TikTok Live’s gifting feature was being used for money laundering. As it turned out, it was. According to the lawsuit, the company discovered that “criminals were selling drugs and running fraudulent operations” during the livestream.
When contacted for comment on the lawsuit, TikTok shared the following statement:
This 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 Instead, the complaint cherry-picks misleading quotes and outdated documents and presents them out of context, which distorts our commitment to protecting our community.
We continue to build on our efforts, including: stronger security protections and screen time limits for teen accounts enabled by default, family pairing tools for parents to monitor their teens, strict livestreaming requirements, and on an ongoing basis Aggressive enforcement of our community guidelines.
Utah’s AG files amended version of this lawsuit in June 2024next a different suit About the addictive design of the TikTok app from 2023. The Utah lawsuit is not the first time the company has come under scrutiny for its handling of child safety. FTC has investigated TikTok Managing child privacyAnd ban the app – now approached the Supreme Court On appeal – partly fueled by concerns about how social video apps could be used to influence children.
