The popular social media app TikTok has been sued by the US state of Indiana. Its attorney general Todd Rokita has accused TikTok’s parent company ByteDance of violating the state’s consumer protections laws.
Two lawsuits were filed on Wednesday. The first one claims the app exposes young users to inappropriate content. In the other complaint, Mr Rokita also alleges TikTok does not disclose the Chinese government’s potential to access sensitive consumer information.
“TikTok is a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” according to court documents. “As long as TikTok is permitted to deceive and mislead Indiana consumers about the risks to their data, those consumers and their privacy are easy prey.”
The complaint says the app’s algorithm promotes a variety of inappropriate content, “depicting alcohol, tobacco, and drugs; sexual content, nudity, and suggestive themes; and intense profanity.”
It also claims that deceives young users with age ratings of 12 and above on Apple and Google app stores.
Indiana is seeking an injunction against its practices and civil penalties against the company for its “unfair and deceptive conduct.”
Mr Rokita said the lawsuits are the first launched by a US state against ByteDance. ByteDance and TikTok have not responded to the BBC’s request for comment.
The announcement of the lawsuits come after other US states have drafted legislation to ban TikTok. Texas, South Dakota and South Carolina have prohibited the use of TikTok being used on state government devices.
Last month, the head of the FBI has said that TikTok poses a national security concern.
Its director Chris Wray told a the US House Homeland Security Committee said Chinese law essentially requires companies to “do whatever the government wants them to in terms of sharing information or serving as a tool of the Chinese government.”
The Biden administration have been in talks with TikTok officials for months as they try to reach a national security agreement to protect the data of its hundreds of millions of users in the US.
TikTok is also facing legal challenges elsewhere. In the UK, the social media company could face a £27m ($29m) fine for failing to protect children’s privacy when they are using the platform.
