A New Hampshire judge lets the state’s lawsuit over TikTok’s addictive design for children move forward
The post A New Hampshire judge lets the state’s lawsuit over TikTok’s addictive design for children move forward appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
A judge in New Hampshire rejected TikTok’s request to dismiss a state lawsuit that accuses it of targeting children with manipulative and addictive features. New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella called the legal decision ”an important step toward holding TikTok accountable for unlawful practices that put children at risk.” Superior Court Judge John Kissinger Jr., in his decision on Tuesday, determined the state’s arguments were clear enough and centered specifically on design issues rather than user-generated content. New Hampshire’s lawsuit alleges TikTok deliberately made the design of its platform addictive, particularly aiming to captivate younger users. The state argues TikTok employs features that keep children on the app longer, thus increasing advertising exposure and encouraging them to make purchases through TikTok Shop, its e-commerce component. Similar claims have targeted other social media platforms Meta has been accused by various states of using harmful, addictive design features in its apps that may negatively affect the mental health of children. Discord was also sued by New Jersey in April, accused of misleading the public about the effectiveness of its safety options for children. In May, lawmakers reintroduced the Kids Online Safety Act after it failed to progress in 2024. This law would make social media companies responsible for preventing harm to children using their platforms. TikTok’s legal problems, on the other hand, are not new. In 2024, Joe Biden passed a law demanding that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, sell the app or face a U.S. ban. Following this, TikTok got deleted from Google and Apple’s app stores, shortly before Trump took office. Since then, Trump has delayed implementing this ban multiple times. The deadline to sell TikTok’s operations in the US has been extended three times. The latest deadline is now 17th September, 2025. In June, Trump said that several wealthy individuals…
