(Ezekiel Loseke, Headline USA) Todd Rokita, Indiana’s Republican attorney general who frequently makes the news for defending America’s children, has filed two lawsuits against the social media company TikTok.
The first lawsuit argues that Tiktok provides “salacious and inappropriate content to all young U.S. users 13 and up for unlimited periods of time, day and night, in an effort to line TikTok’s pockets with billions of dollars from U.S. consumers,” according to Axios.
“In light of this abundant and serious sexual content and mature or suggestive themes, TikTok misleads and deceives Indiana consumers by choosing ‘infrequent/mild’ to describe the quantity and nature of these types of material,” the lawsuit continued.
The second lawsuit regards TikTok’s Chinese ties and asserts it misleads American consumers about the data it collects and shares with the Chinese Government.
Rokita released a statement regarding the suits.
“In multiple ways, TikTok represents a clear and present danger to Hoosiers that is hiding in plain sight in their own pockets,” he said. “At the very least, the company owes consumers the truth about the age-appropriateness of its content and the insecurity of the data it collects on users.
“The TikTok app is a malicious and menacing threat unleashed on unsuspecting Indiana consumers by a Chinese company that knows full well the harms it inflicts on users,” he concluded.
Indiana is not the only state (nor is America the only country) that has taken action against TikTok. The New York Times reported that a multitude of states have taken a variety of actions against the Chinese company and the UK has put the social-media giant on notice.
The Times seems to have done its best to cover for the Chinese app. It quoted the app claiming that the Chinese Government has never attempted to access American data, pointed out that the company spent $4.2 billion in lobbying, and labeled the company’s CEO’s attempt to smooth things over “a charm offensive,” and outlined a feature that allows parents to monitor their child’s Tiktok activity.
The “paper of record” even quoted Tiktok’s spokesperson saying, “We are confident that we’re on a path to fully satisfy all reasonable U.S. national security concerns and have already made significant strides toward implementing those solutions.”
