Attorney General Alan Wilson joins nationwide investigation into TikTok
March 2, 2022
Attorneys General concerned for safety and well-being of children
Today, Attorney General Alan Wilson joined a nationwide investigation into TikTok for providing and promoting its social media platform to children and young adults while use is associated with physical and mental health harms. Attorneys General nationwide are examining whether the company violated state consumer protection laws that put the public at risk.
AG Wilson has long expressed concern about the negative impacts of social media platforms on South Carolina’s youngest residents.
“Our children are precious and vulnerable and we need to ensure that they’re fully protected,” Attorney General Wilson said.
The investigation will look into the harms such usage causes to young users and what TikTok knew about those harms. The investigation focuses, among other things, on the techniques utilized by TikTok to boost young user engagement, including increasing the duration of time spent on the platform and frequency of engagement with the platform.
In May 2021, a bipartisan coalition of 44 Attorneys General urged Facebook to abandon its plans to launch a version of Instagram for children under 13. In November 2021, Attorneys General from across the country announced their investigation into Meta Platforms, Inc., formerly known as Facebook, for providing and promoting its social media platform Instagram to kids.
Leading the investigation is a bipartisan coalition of Attorneys General from California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Vermont. They are joined by a broad group of Attorneys General from across the country.
