Attorney General John M. Formella announces the filing of an amended complaint today against TikTok Inc. for additional violations of the State’s consumer protection act. The State’s new allegations focus on TikTok LIVE, a live streaming feature that allows users to shower live hosts with virtual gifts that the hosts can turn into real money. According to the State, this has resulted in the financial and sexual exploitation of young users including instances where LIVE hosts exchange suggestive or sexual acts for the virtual gifts they can turn into money. Troublingly, the filing alleges that TikTok has pocketed significant money from these transactions, taking a commission of up to 50% of each payment on the platform.

“The new claim in our lawsuit fights back against the harms that TikTok LIVE can inflict on New Hampshire children,” said Attorney General Formella.  “We contend that TikTok uses LIVE to profit from exposing children to sexual exploitation, fraud, and other criminal activity.  We are pushing to hold TikTok accountable and to force changes to the harmful features of its platform.”

This filing adds to the Attorney General’s June complaint that accused TikTok of other illegal acts by manipulating young users with addictive features that cause excessive use and lead to mental health and other harms, by lying about the safety of the platform, by collecting personal data from children under 13 without parental consent, and by inaccurately downplaying the role of its China-based parent company ByteDance. In the same vein as TikTok LIVE, the State alleges that the company knows that all of these practices result in profound harm but has consistently prioritized profit over children’s safety.

Recently, TikTok has found its business in the crosshairs of public law enforcers across the country, including a complaint filed by the Department of Justice in August and several state Attorneys General following in New Hampshire’s footsteps by filing their own lawsuits against TikTok with allegations largely similar to New Hampshire’s. Today’s amended complaint alleges that TikTok unlawfully made itself rich through LIVE, while knowing that its virtual economy was contributing to child exploitation. Among other things, this includes:

• Knowingly using LIVE to profit from pushing fraudulent, illegal, and predatory behavior on children by combining its livestreaming feature with monetary gifts, cutesy themes that are designed to appeal to children, non-enforcement of its ostensible age restrictions, and an algorithm that actively promotes the worst behavior to users.
• Lying to New Hampshire users and their parents about the safety of the LIVE feature and the effectiveness of its age-gating while failing to warn users about being exposed to predators or falling victim to fraud on the platform.
• Utilizing deceptive design features to mask the true cost of goods on the feature to extract as much financial value from young users as possible.

The lawsuit highlights the detrimental impacts that TikTok’s conduct has had in New Hampshire including increased risks to minors of financial and sexual harm as well as substantial increases in mental health issues across the state.

As with the original filing, the amended complaint asks the Court to enter an injunction requiring substantive changes in how the company operates. The State also seeks penalties and other monetary relief to address the harms that these practices have caused. The Attorney General’s investigation of other social media platforms for related practices continues.