San Francisco: Video-sharing sensation TikTok is being sued in California after youngsters died whereas collaborating in a “Blackout Problem” that makes a sport of choking oneself till passing out.
The lawsuit filed in state courtroom in Los Angeles final week accuses TikTok software program of “deliberately and repeatedly” pushing the Blackout Problem that led to the deaths of an eight-year-old woman in Texas and a nine-year-old woman in Wisconsin final yr.
“TikTok must be held accountable for pushing lethal content material to those two younger women,” mentioned Matthew Bergman, an lawyer on the Social Media Victims Regulation Middle, which filed the swimsuit.
“TikTok has invested billions of {dollars} to deliberately design merchandise that push harmful content material that it is aware of are harmful and may end up in the deaths of its customers.”
TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The swimsuit alleges that TikTok´s algorithm promoted the Blackout Problem to every of the women, who died from self-strangulation — one utilizing rope and the opposite a canine leash.
It moreover listed youngsters in Italy, Australia and elsewhere whose deaths have been linked to the TikTok Blackout Problem.