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'Mental health crisis': Meta, Google & TikTok to face addiction claims

The ruling Thursday by US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, follows a contrasting June 7 decision by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge in favour of the companies

TikTok allowed disinformation in political ads despite ban: Global Witness

Just weeks before the U.S. presidential election, TikTok approved advertisements that contained election disinformation even though it has a ban on political ads, according to a report published Thursday by the nonprofit Global Witness. The technology and environmental watchdog group submitted ads that it designed to test how well systems at social media companies work in detecting different types of election misinformation. The group, which did a similar investigation two years ago, did find that the companies especially Facebook have improved their content-moderation systems since then. But it called out TikTok for approving four of the eight ads submitted for review that contained falsehoods about the election. That's despite the platform's ban on all political ads in place since 2019. The ads never appeared on TikTok because Global Witness pulled them before they went online. Four ads were incorrectly approved during the first stage of moderation, but did not run on our ...

TikTok designed to be addictive, harmful to kids: US states' lawsuits

More than a dozen states and the District of Columbia filed lawsuits against TikTok on Tuesday, saying that the popular short-form video app is designed to be addictive to kids and harms their mental health. The lawsuits stem from a national investigation into TikTok, which was launched in March 2022 by a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from many states, including New York, California, Kentucky and New Jersey. All of the complaints were filed in state courts. At the heart of each lawsuit is the TikTok algorithm, which powers what users see on the platform by populating the app's main For You feed with content tailored to people's interests. The lawsuits note TikTok design features that they say addict children to the platform, such as the ability to scroll endlessly through content, push notifications that come with built-in buzzes and face filters that create unattainable appearances for users. They've chosen profit over the health and safety, well-being and future of our

Social media users in Europe get forum to challenge content decisions

Social media users in the European Union will soon have a new forum to challenge decisions by platforms to remove posts and videos for breaking their rules or leave up others that may violate them. An out of court dispute settlement body named the Appeals Centre Europe said Tuesday it has been certified by Irish regulators to act as a referee on content moderation disputes across the 27-nation EU, starting with cases involving Facebook, YouTube and TikTok. The centre is similar to Meta's Oversight Board, a quasi-independent body set up in 2020 that acts like a supreme court for thorny decisions about content moderation issues on Facebook, Instagram and Threads submitted by users around the world. Under the EU's digital rulebook known as the Digital Services Act, or DSA, tech companies and social media platforms are required to work with dispute settlement bodies and comply with any decisions they make. EU officials in Brussels wanted to give EU citizens a way to challenge any ...

TikTok and US face off in court over law that could lead to platform ban

TikTok faced off with the US government in federal court on Monday, arguing a law that could ban the platform in a few short months is unconstitutional while the Justice Department said it is needed to eliminate a national security risk posed by the popular social media company. In a more than two hour appearance before a panel of three judges at a federal appeals court in Washington, attorneys for the two sides -- and content creators -- were pressed on their best arguments for and against the law that forces the two companies to break ties by mid-January or lose one of their biggest markets in the world. Andrew Pincus, a veteran attorney representing the two companies, argued in court that the law unfairly targets the company and runs afoul of the First Amendment because TikTok Inc. -- the US arm of TikTok -- is an American entity. After his remarks, another attorney representing content creators who are also challenging the law argued it violates the rights of US speakers and is .

TikTok heads to court over US law that could ban popular platform

The US government and TikTok will go head-to-head in federal court on Monday as oral arguments begin in a consequential legal case that will determine if or how a popular social media platform used by nearly half of all Americans will continue to operate in the country. Attorneys for the two sides will appear before a panel of judges at the federal appeals court in Washington. TikTok and its China-based parent company, ByteDance, are challenging a U.S. law that requires them to break ties or face a ban in the U.S. by mid-January. The legal battle is expected to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. The law, signed by President Joe Biden in April, was a culmination of a years-long saga in Washington over the short-form video-sharing app, which the government sees as a national security threat due to its connections to China. But TikTok argues the law runs afoul of the First Amendment while other opponents claim it mirrors crackdowns sometimes seen in authoritarian countries abroad. In cour

Nepal lifts ban on social media app TikTok after 10 months of restrictions

With some pre-conditions, Nepal has lifted its ban on TikTok, effective Friday, which was initially imposed on November 12 last year

Americans less supportive of TikTok ban ahead of govt deadline: Survey

Pew found that 38 per cent of US adults supported a ban last fall and 50 per cent were in favor in March 2023

TikTok parent ByteDance eyes $9.5 bn in record Asia dollar corporate loan

ByteDance's facility is larger than the earlier-anticipated size - an indication that the borrower is eager to take advantage of Asia's loan market, which is flush with liquidity amid dismal deal flow

US court takes aim at Big Tech liability shield after 10-yr-old's death

Three weeks before Christmas 2021, Nylah Anderson was found lifeless in her mother's closet in suburban Philadelphia

Content moderator sues TikTok in UK alleging toxic work environment

"I felt offended, harassed and degraded in a toxic work environment," Altamirano alleged. The stress allegedly lead to anxiety, depression and complications in her pregnancy

US revives lawsuit against TikTok over 10-yr-old's blackout challenge death

A US appeals court revived on Tuesday a lawsuit filed by the mother of a 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl who died attempting a viral challenge she allegedly saw on TikTok that dared people to choke themselves until they lost consciousness. While federal law generally protects online publishers from liability for content posted by others, the court said TikTok could potentially be found liable for promoting the content or using an algorithm to steer it to children. TikTok makes choices about the content recommended and promoted to specific users, and by doing so, is engaged in its own first-party speech, Judge Patty Shwartz of the 3rd US Circuit Court in Philadelphia wrote in the opinion issued Tuesday. Lawyers for TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment. Lawyers for the mother, Tawainna Anderson, had argued that the so-called blackout challenge, which was popular in 2021, appeared on Nylah Anderson's For You" feed after

TikTok compares itself to foreign-owned media in fight against sale or ban

TikTok attorneys have made the First Amendment a key part of their legal challenge

TikTok shows less 'anti-China' content than other rival networks: Study

TikTok has faced intense scrutiny from US concerned about the Chinese government's influence

US appeals court should reject DOJ filings in divestiture suit: TikTok

The Biden administration asked the court to reject lawsuits by TikTok, ByteDance and a group of TikTok creators seeking to block the law that could ban the app used by 170 million Americans

TikTok agrees to withdraw rewards feature after EU raised concerns

It was the first resolution of an investigation under the 27-country EU's sweeping Digital Services Act, which went into effect in February

US Justice Dept sues TikTok, accusing it of illegally collecting kids' data

The Justice Department sued TikTok on Friday, accusing the company of violating children's online privacy law and running afoul of a settlement it had reached with another federal agency. The complaint, filed together with the Federal Trade Commission in a California federal court, comes as the US and the prominent social media company are embroiled in yet another legal battle that will determine if or how TikTok will continue to operate in the country. The latest lawsuit focuses on allegations that TikTok, a trend-setting platform popular among young users, and its China-based parent company ByteDance violated a federal law that requires kid-oriented apps and websites to get parental consent before collecting personal information of children under 13. It also says the companies failed to honour requests from parents who wanted their children's accounts deleted, and chose not to delete accounts even when the firms knew they belonged to kids under 13. This action is necessary to ..

US sues TikTok, parent company ByteDance over children privacy violations

In March, a source told Reuters the FTC could resolve a probe into TikTok over allegedly faulty privacy and data security practices by either filing suit or reaching a settlement

Rise of ByteDance's CapCut threatens market share of Adobe and Canva

The app is a streamlined tool for making videos - especially with effects popular on TikTok, the social platform also owned by ByteDance

TikTok collected data on issues like abortion, gun control: US Justice Dept

In a fresh broadside against one of the world's most popular technology companies, the Justice Department late Friday accused TikTok of harnessing the capability to gather bulk information on users based on views on divisive social issues like gun control, abortion and religion. Government lawyers wrote in a brief filed to the federal appeals court in Washington that TikTok and its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance used an internal web-suite system called Lark to enable TikTok employees to speak directly with ByteDance engineers in China. TikTok employees used Lark to send sensitive data about US users, information that has wound up being stored on Chinese servers and accessible to ByteDance employees in China, federal officials said. One of Lark's internal search tools, the filing states, permits ByteDance and TikTok employees in the US and China to gather information on users' content or expressions, including views on sensitive topics, such as abortion or religion. Last year