Indiana sues TikTok alleging Chinese access to user data, mature content exposure

WASHINGTON, Dec 7 (Reuters) – Indiana sued Chinese language-owned short-video sharing app TikTok on Wednesday over allegations that it’s deceiving customers about China’s entry to their knowledge and exposing kids to mature content material.

The workplace of Indiana Legal professional Basic Todd Rokita, a Republican, stated the favored app, owned by ByteDance, violates the state’s shopper safety legal guidelines by not disclosing the Chinese language authorities’s potential to entry delicate shopper data.

TikTok additionally deceived younger customers and their mother and father with its age score of 12-plus in Apple’s (AAPL.O) and Google’s (GOOGL.O) app shops, Rokita’s workplace stated in a criticism filed on Wednesday. The criticism added that inappropriate sexual and substance-related content material can simply be discovered and are pushed by the corporate to kids utilizing TikTok.

Indiana stated its actions had been the primary of its sort by a U.S. state. Rokita is searching for emergency injunctive reduction and civil penalties in opposition to the corporate.

A spokesperson for the video sharing app stated it didn’t have a touch upon the pending litigation.

The authorized motion was first reported by the New York Occasions.

Indiana’s motion adopted an emergency directive issued a day earlier by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan that prohibited the usage of TikTok on state authorities units and networks.

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem final week signed an govt order barring state workers and contractors from putting in or utilizing TikTok on state-owned units and South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster on Monday requested a state company to ban TikTok from state authorities telephones and computer systems.

TikTok has stated the issues prompting state bans had been largely fueled by misinformation.

Final month, FBI Director Chris Wray stated TikTok’s U.S. operations raised nationwide safety issues, flagging the danger the Chinese language authorities may harness the video-sharing app to affect customers or management their units.

Former President Donald Trump in 2020 tried to dam new U.S. customers from downloading WeChat and TikTok, which might have successfully blocked the apps’ use in the US, however misplaced a sequence of courtroom battles.

President Joe Biden in June 2021 withdrew Trump’s govt orders that sought to ban the downloads and directed the Commerce Division to conduct a assessment of safety issues posed by the apps.

Reporting by Kanishka Singh
Enhancing by Sandra Maler

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