Utah sues TikTok, alleging it lures children into addictive and destructive social media habits::Utah has become the latest state to sue TikTok, alleging the social media company is “baiting” children into addictive and unhealthy habits.

  • demesisx@infosec.pub
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    9 months ago

    I mean, they’re not wrong but Instagram, Facebook, etc should also be in that lawsuit.

  • LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Will they apply same logic to….lets say a 200 billion dollar hedge fund disguised as a cult religion?

    • PeleSpirit@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I bet they’re losing a lot of their kids from their religion because of what’s on there. That was my immediate thought.

      • paprika@infosec.pub
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        9 months ago

        Yeah, this seems more to do with the content available on tiktok (like pro-gay messaging) rather than anything else. They want it banned so they can create a little fundie safe space. It’s the same reason they want to ban any books from libraries with even a hint of pro-lgbt content.

    • seaQueue@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      It’s possible for more than one thing to be bad, we don’t have to pick just one of the two.

        • seaQueue@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          It also implies that one (the worst one) deserves more attention. In this case we should probably be paying attention to both.

    • SPOOSER@lemmy.today
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      9 months ago

      That’s not true at all. Are members of the Church of Jesus Christ misguided in how they treat their fellow members and their youth? Yes. But its fundamental teachings (not the toxic traditions of the members) are one of peace, love, and hope. This type of comment is rude, and offensive, and if it were regarding another group this kind of comment would be downvoted. But because it’s against a religion it’s ok to shit on their beliefs? This sentiment only breeds toxicity, and if we really want to help others who are affected by the toxic behaviors of all groups, we need to start with ourselves and how we treat (and look at) those whose beliefs differ from our own.

      • SpookyOperative@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        9 months ago

        The mormon church explicitly told their members to vote no on legalizing gay marriage.

        My grandfather died years earlier than he would’ve because the money they would’ve spent on treatment went to tithing, and the church refused to help.

        I was bullied and isolated throughout my childhood because all the kids around me were taught by their church to be disgusted by me because I’m queer.

        Utah is a shameless theocracy and the church’s influence has done disgusting things everywhere I look, and as a final “fuck you” I’m probably going to have to move because of the increasing paranoia they’re creating about trans people.

  • angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com
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    9 months ago

    I wouldn’t take issue with this if X, Meta (for Instagram,) and Google (for YouTube Shorts) were getting sued as well. But I don’t think TikTok should be singled out.

  • Reality Suit@lemmy.one
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    9 months ago

    “We’re going to be the ones who indoctrinate your kids” (Utah was founded by Mormons, oops I mean The Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Gotta use the actual name.)

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    TikTok lures children into hours of social media use, misrepresents the app’s safety and deceptively portrays itself as independent of its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, Utah claims in the lawsuit.

    Arkansas and Indiana have filed similar lawsuits while the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to decide whether state attempts to regulate social media platforms such as Facebook, X and TikTok violate the Constitution.

    Research has shown that children who spend more than three hours a day on social media double their risk of poor mental health, including anxiety and depression, the lawsuit alleges.

    The lawsuit seeks to force TikTok to change its “destructive behavior” while imposing fines and penalties to fund education efforts and otherwise address damage done to Utah children, Reyes said.

    They will impose a digital curfew on people under 18, which will require minors to get parental consent to sign up for social media apps and force companies to verify the ages of all their Utah users.

    They also require tech companies to give parents access to their kids’ accounts and private messages, raising concern among some child advocates about further harming children’s mental health.


    The original article contains 425 words, the summary contains 187 words. Saved 56%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • FigMcLargeHuge@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      They will impose a digital curfew on people under 18, which will require minors to get parental consent to sign up for social media apps and force companies to verify the ages of all their Utah users.

      This is laughable. I played this game before with my own kids. I would find their new Myspace account and have it removed. They would just go to a friends house whose parents didn’t care and sign up for a new one. It was a back and forth. Then my now-ex started arguing with me about it once the kids started whining about it. Now they are grown and can do whatever they want. It was a battle I was never going to win, but if Utah thinks they can manage this, I would love to watch. Gonna go make some popcorn.

      • GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org
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        9 months ago

        Trying to split the internet into “adults’” and “children’s” sections is never going to work — not without a mandatory ID system that nobody wants — nobody who isn’t attached to a spy organization or totalitarian regime, at least. You can’t treat it like alcohol or tobacco because nobody’s giving away alcohol and tobacco for free; we restrict access primarily at the point of sale. There’s no point of sale for social media, and no comparable way to restrict it.

        However, what you can do is regulate advertising to the point where the dark patterns used by data-harvesting platforms like TikTok, Google, Facebook, etc. are simply not commercially viable. The EU is moving in that direction already.

      • Crikeste@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        Utahns are ACTIVELY playing this game with porn sites right now. Curious as to how that’s working for them.

  • iHUNTcriminals@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    They should treat these social media companies like they did the silk road creator.