Video-sharing sensation TikTok is being sued in California after children died while participating in a “blackout challenge,” which is a sport in which you choke yourself until you pass out.
The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles state court last week, alleges the TikTok software “deliberately and repeatedly” advanced the blackout challenge that most recently resulted in the deaths of an eight-year-old girl in Texas and a nine-year-old girl in Wisconsin has led year.
“TikTok must be held accountable for leaking deadly content to these two young girls,” said Matthew Bergman, an attorney with the Social Media Victims Law Center, which filed the lawsuit.
“TikTok has invested billions of dollars to intentionally create products that distribute dangerous content that it knows is dangerous and could lead to the deaths of its users.”
TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit alleges that TikTok’s algorithm advertised the Blackout Challenge to each of the girls who died from self-strangulation — one with a rope and the other with a dog leash.
It also listed children in Italy, Australia and elsewhere whose deaths have been linked to the TikTok Blackout Challenge.
TikTok has featured and promoted a series of challenges in which users film themselves participating in themed acts, which are sometimes dangerous.
TikTok challenges described in court documents included the “Skull Breaker Challenge,” in which people jumping pull their legs out from under their feet, causing them to tip over and hit their heads.
The “coronavirus challenge” involves licking random objects and surfaces in public during the pandemic, and the “fire challenge” involves dousing things with flammable liquids and setting them on fire, court documents say.
The lawsuit asks a judge to order TikTok to stop charging children about its algorithm and promoting dangerous challenges, and to pay unspecified damages.
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