California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and several other state attorneys general filed a coordinated blitz of lawsuits Tuesday against TikTok, alleging the popular social media app is exploiting young users, violating state consumer protection laws and misleading the public.

A coalition of 14 attorneys general, led by Bonta and New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James, filed separate enforcement actions against the Chinese-owned app that serves as a platform for influencers and internet celebrities.

At a news conference, Bonta outlined several features of the app that state regulators say harm the mental health of young people, including beauty filters, infinite scrolling, push notifications and likes.

“They have built a business model centered on exploiting young people’s time, attention and well-being,” Bonta said.

TikTok has 16 million users in California and an outsize presence in Los Angeles, where the company has a large office and many content creators live and work to make money off the app.

The California lawsuit, filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court, accuses TikTok of violating the state’s Unfair Competition Law and the False Advertising Law. It seeks significant penalties and injunctive and monetary relief to address the app’s alleged misconduct.

“Our investigation has revealed that TikTok cultivates social media addiction to boost corporate profits,” Bonta said. “TikTok intentionally targets children because they know kids do not yet have the defenses or capacity to create healthy boundaries around addictive content.”

A TikTok spokesperson said it provides “robust safeguards” for its users and denies the lawsuit’s allegations.

“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,” spokesperson Michael Hughes said.

Despite efforts by the company to limit the amount of time teens spend on TikTok, Bonta said the safety features are “empty gestures at best.” For example, TikTok allows teens to limit their time on the app for 60 minutes, but the users are given a password to bypass the restrictions.

“They have been more worried about the perception that they are doing something to ensure the safety of young people than actually doing something to protect the safety of young people,” he said.

Bonta, who said he’s a father to three young people who use TikTok, said he’s not only worried but also “fed up” with the platform. While he acknowledged social media platforms have benefits such as connecting people and creating jobs, they also have pitfalls that regulators are trying to mitigate, he said.

“There are parents throughout the state and this nation who are rightfully worried about their children’s mental health, their safety, their well-being, because of the use of social media and its ubiquity,” he said.

According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, 63% of Americans ages 13 to 17 use TikTok, and 17% of American teens said they were on the app “almost constantly.”

The lawsuit is the latest in a string of legal hurdles that TikTok and other social media apps have faced from federal and state regulators. In August, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission sued TikTok, alleging the company violated a federal law that safeguards the privacy of children. The agencies accused the social media giant of collecting personal information from children without notifying their parents.

The FTC released a 129-page report in September that analyzed how TikTok, YouTube and other popular social media apps failed to protect young people and user privacy. Bonta’s office started investigating TikTok’s potential harms to young people in 2022 and filed a similar lawsuit against Facebook’s parent company, Meta, last year.

TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, has also grappled with national security concerns, and U.S. lawmakers have raised bipartisan concerns about the Chinese government’s connection to the company. Last year, TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew testified before Congress in a marathon hearing in which lawmakers grilled the executive about teen safety, misinformation and other concerns they had about the social media platform.

Those worries culminated in April when President Biden signed a law that would ban the app in the United States unless it’s sold to an American company by mid-January. TikTok has sued to block the law, alleging it would run afoul of the free speech rights protected under the 1st Amendment.

Bronny James thinks they’re “pretty nice.”

Max Christie says they’re “super cool.”

D’Angelo Russell declared them his “favorite.”

The Lakers revealed their 2024-2025 City Edition uniforms Tuesday, with a video that features several players — the ones mentioned above, as well as LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Rui Hachimura and Austin Reaves — sporting the new duds and reacting to them.

“Definitely a representation of the Lakers and the city, that’s for sure,” LeBron James said of the new uniforms in the video.

Dubbed the “California Destiny” uniform, it is one of at least four styles the Lakers will wear on the court this season.

Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell says the team’s City Edition uniforms “might be my favorite.”

(Lakers)

Advertisement

“This might be my favorite,” Russell said. “I’m not even gonna lie to you.”

The jersey features several firsts for a team uniform, with the words “Lake Show” replacing “Lakers” across the chest and a color progression that starts as black at the top and transforms into purple farther down.

There are nods to the past as well, including jersey numbers that mimic the style used from 1999 to 2017 and an emblem along the waistband that resembles one of the championship banners that hang from the Crypto.com Arena rafters.

The Lakers also unveiled the City Edition court it will use when the players are wearing the jerseys. It features the gradient color effect along the perimeter, a large LA logo at midcourt, the words “Lake Show” at each baseline and solid black free-throw lanes.

“Daaaang,” Bronny James said in the video. “The black is tough.”

The Lakers released a rendering of how the City Edition court will look at Crypto.com Arena this season.

(Lakers)

His dad added of the new court: “That’s pretty dope right there, baby.”

The City Edition jerseys will be available for purchase Nov. 14 at the team’s online store and in person at the Team LA store at Crypto.com Arena or the Lakers Team Shop in El Segundo. The Lakers will wear them on court for the first time during a Nov. 21 home game against the Orlando Magic.

Construction is underway on a $300-million hotel next to SoFi Stadium, the latest addition to Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s sprawling mixed-use development on the former site of the Hollywood Park horse racing venue in Inglewood.

The 300-room Kali Hotel is the only hotel in Kroenke’s master plan for Hollywood Park, and developers hope it will be a favored place to stay for visiting football teams and basketball teams, as well as fans who come to see them play.

It is being erected by real estate developer Kali P. Chaudhuri, whose KPC Development Co. owns and builds commercial properties in California and India. It will be the company’s first hotel in the United States.

The hotel will rise 12 stories on Stadium Drive, across a man-made lake from the 70,000-seat stadium, which is home to L.A.’s two NFL teams, the Rams and Chargers. It will be near the YouTube Theater and within walking distance of the Intuit Dome, the recently opened home of the Los Angeles Clippers, and Kia Forum, which are not part of the SoFi development project.

Known officially as the Kali Hotel and Rooftop, Autograph Collection, it will join Marriott’s Autograph Collection, which allows owners to customize their hotels while remaining affiliated with the chain.

The hotel’s 34 suites, which are intended to appeal to sports and entertainment VIPs, will be as large as 1,200 square feet, with some having oversized features such as shower heads mounted 11 feet high.

“It would be an ideal spot for any visiting basketball teams to the Clippers arena, and obviously for SoFi Stadium,” said John Petty, head of development and construction for KPC. “We do anticipate sports teams staying at the hotel.”

Kroenke controls nearly 300 acres surrounding SoFi Stadium on land formerly occupied by the horse racing venue. When the complex is completed, it will be 3½ times the size of Disneyland, making it the largest urban mixed-use development under construction in the western U.S., according to Kroenke’s organization. Plans encompass offices, residences, shops, restaurants and public parks.

The hotel’s grounds will include a well-known feature from the original racetrack, the life-size bronze sculpture of jockey Bill Shoemaker riding famed racehorse Swaps at full gallop that greeted bettors for decades. Swaps and Shoemaker won the 1955 Kentucky Derby, and the thoroughbred also captured the Hollywood Gold Cup, Hollywood Park’s signature race. The sculpture has been in storage for years.

Another element the developers hope will stand out at the hotel will be its rooftop bar and restaurant with views of the stadium, Intuit Dome and the steady stream of airplanes on their final approach to LAX. It’s between two flight paths and will be visible from the air, Petty said. “Our 12th floor will really stand out to anyone landing at LAX.”

The hotel will have three restaurants, a pool and yoga deck, spa, fitness center, ballroom and spaces for meetings.

The scale and cost of the hotel reflect how the neighborhood has evolved, hotel consultant Alan Reay of Atlas Hospitality said.

“Five or 10 years ago, I would have said Inglewood is a tough spot” for a luxury boutique hotel, he said. But “there’s a big positive effect of having a sports team stadium” that can help drive business through games, concerts and other events.

Completion of the hotel is set for spring 2026, and the owners expect it to serve people attending three major events at SoFi Stadium: the FIFA World Cup in 2026, the Super Bowl in 2027 and the Olympic Games in 2028.

The Kali Hotel was designed by Lamar Johnson Collaborative and will be constructed by Clayco.

“Although this will be our first hotel, we’re already planning to build many more,” Chaudhuri said.

KPC is leasing the land for the hotel from Kroenke under a long-term agreement and went through a competitive process to get the nod from the landlord to be the hotelier for Hollywood Park.

“We went through a lot of wringers, but we succeeded,” Chaudhuri said. “We’re fortunate they chose us.”

A groundbreaking ceremony is set for Oct. 22.

Among KPC’s other developments are hospitals in Riverside and Orange counties and a 300,000-square-foot office campus in Corona, where the company is based. It has built a nursing college and 1,000-bed hospital in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. KPC is also building two residential projects in Kolkata, including a 74-story skyscraper, the company said.