Utah names TikTok in new lawsuit over “virtual strip club”
Jun 3, 2024, 11:46 AM | Updated: Jun 11, 2024, 8:56 am
FILE: TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance are suing the U.S. federal government over a law that would ban the popular video-sharing app unless it’s sold to another company. (Kiichiro Sato, Associated Press)
(Kiichiro Sato, Associated Press)
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Division of Consumer Protection filed a lawsuit Monday naming the social media platform TikTok over a practice the state says creates a “virtual strip club.”
At issue is TikTok’s live video streaming feature, TikTok LIVE. According to the lawsuit, when combined with TikTok monetization options, TikTok LIVE allows adult users to pay minors using virtual currency to perform illegal acts, including sexual exploitation and distribution of child pornography.
New lawsuit pits Utah against TikTok
In a statement issued with the lawsuit, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes’ office claimed TikTok “has consciously allowed young people to be sexually exploited on the TikTok platform in exchange for money.”
The lawsuit itself goes into more detail about the claims, accusing TikTok of deliberately manipulates users through the use of “design features known as ‘dark patterns'”. Utah prosecutors allege those dark pattern design features “make their social media apps ‘stickier’ — keeping users engaged for longer,” according to the lawsuit.
The Utah lawsuit claims TikTok uses these features to encourage users to use the platform’s currency and participate in the live stream feature.
In the statement, Reyes claimed the combined practice “facilitates money laundering.”
Adding insult to injury, Live facilitates money laundering while TikTok quietly charges fifty percent on every transaction to profit in the billions from the entire enterprise . . . Our investigation confirmed TikTok knows of the damage to young victims but feels it makes far too much money to stop.
A virtual strip club
In the lawsuit, the state of Utah outlines the possible illegal activity that adult users could pay minors to perform via TikTok LIVE.
“TikTok has created a virtual strip club allowing minors to be exploited across America by connecting innocent victims to predators in real-time,” Reyes said in the statement.
The lawsuit extensively cites a Forbes article from April 2022 that outlined how adults could solicit sex acts from minors on TikTok. It detailed transactions to encourage teens to show off their bodies, flirt with each other on command, and more, sometimes through explicit requests and sometimes using more coded language.
Users would “reward” teens with virtual gifts and currency. TikTok rules forbids the use of LIVE by users under 16, and the exchange of gifts or currency for users under 18. Forbes determined several of the streams its reporters viewed were removed by the time they published, but the Utah lawsuit claims TikTok does not enforce its own rules.
“Even before the Forbes story broke,” the lawsuit states, “TikTok knew about pervasive issues with transactional sexual content occurring during LIVE sessions, especially involving kids, through user complaints and internal safety reports.”
Seeking a stop to illegal activity
Much of the Utah lawsuit remains redacted at this writing, including how many TikTok users live in Utah. Details about how much money TikTok makes from LIVE or how much Utah users generate through virtual currency are also redacted.
The state of Utah seeks to stop TikTok from profiting off illegal activity. It also seeks damages and restitution for victims, civil penalties, and the seizure of any profits made from illegal activity.
KSL reached out to ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, for comment. We have not yet received a response.
