AG Ellison filed a groundbreaking lawsuit against TikTok Inc. for violating Minnesota’s consumer protection laws. This lawsuit follows the Attorney General’s federal lawsuit filed against Meta in October 2023 for similar violations through its design of Instagram and Facebook.

The Complaint shows how TikTok ensnares young users in cycles of excessive use through app design features that prey on young people’s neurodevelopmental vulnerabilities. The filing details the company’s strategic decision to squeeze time, attention, data, and even money out of young users by maximizing their time spent on TikTok.  For example, TikTok paired a livestreaming feature—TikTok LIVE—with unlicensed virtual currencies that have resulted in documented instances of sexual and financial exploitation of young TikTok users. Concurrent with the rise of TikTok, Minnesota has documented significant increases in rates of depression, anxiety, and hopelessness in Minnesota youth. Numerous studies have found that excessive use of TikTok and other social media platforms can severely harm the mental health of young people, with one study in particular finding that increased use of social media can double the risk of negative mental health outcomes like depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation. A recent survey found that 54% of Minnesota’s 11th graders reported feeling down, depressed, or hopeless at least several days a week, and nearly 70% reported feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge.

“If you know nothing else about TikTok, you know it’s extremely addicting. My office’s extensive investigation into the company has confirmed that addictiveness is the result of years of intentional decisions that TikTok’s leadership made in the pursuit of profit. We also know that spending excessive time on TikTok can be harmful to someone’s mental health. Young people are particularly vulnerable to the harms TikTok can inflict since the regions of their brains that manage things like impulse control, decision-making, and risk-taking are still developing. Simply put, the more people TikTok can get addicted to its app, the more money they make, and the more their users’ mental health suffers. This conduct is not just deeply immoral, it’s illegal. Today, I am filing a lawsuit to bring an end to TikTok’s preying on Minnesota’s children.”