Lawsuit: Utah calls TikTok’s live stream feature a ‘virtual strip club’ that targets minors

In this 2020 photo illustration, the TikTok app is displayed on an Apple iPhone. (Photo Illustration by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The state of Utah filed another lawsuit against the social media company TikTok, accusing it of profiting off of “virtual strip clubs” involving minors. 

That’s according to a heavily redacted complaint filed in Utah’s 3rd District Court in Salt Lake County on Monday, which details a live-stream feature that attorneys for the state say promotes sexual solicitation and exploitation of young people. 

The feature — called TikTok LIVE — was introduced in 2019 and “quickly became extraordinarily popular,” the complaint states. It includes a monetization feature where viewers can purchase virtual currency and gifts, which can then be exchanged for real money. According to attorneys for Utah, creators are promised more money by TikTok based on how popular their content becomes. 

But according to the complaint, minors are sometimes incentivized by the currency to take part in sexually explicit acts — and TikTok takes a “significant cut” from those virtual transactions, Utah alleges. 

“Any responsible company would shut down a feature if it facilitated children being exploited and adults paying children for sexual acts,” the complaint states. “But TikTok is too hooked on LIVE’s massive revenue stream.”

Several pages of the complaint are almost entirely redacted, concealing TikTok’s earnings from LIVE, TikTok’s own internal findings regarding mental health impacts on minors, the number of TikTok users in Utah, TikTok’s ad revenue and more, making it difficult to determine the full scope of the social media company’s presence in Utah.

This is Utah’s second lawsuit targeting TikTok after it filed a consumer protection case in October claiming the company intentionally designed “addictive features” to lure in young users and keep them using the app for long periods of time. TikTok filed a motion to dismiss the suit, which the court will consider during a hearing scheduled June 13. 

In response to the latest suit, a TikTok spokesperson said the company has “industry-leading policies and measures to help protect the safety and well-being of teens.”

“Creators must be at least 18 years old before they can go LIVE, and their account must meet a follower requirement. We immediately revoke access to features if we find accounts that do not meet our age requirements,” the spokesperson said. 

But in the lawsuit, the state calls those measures “nothing more than hollow policy statements.” 

“Despite what TikTok claims, it refuses to enforce meaningful and effective oversight of users’ ages. TikTok knows many users lie about their age and it does little to ensure its policies are adequately enforced and effective,” the complaint states. 

Attorneys for Utah paint TikTok LIVE as an at times seedy corner of the internet that allows the company “to profit from crime and the sexual exploitation of children.”

“In countless live streams, minors have been encouraged by adults to—among other illicit acts—strip, spread their legs, and flash body parts to the camera, in exchange for virtual Gifts,” the complaint said. 

And those gifts, according to court documents, are designed to be “tempting” to children, described as “cute, colorful emojis reminiscent of cartoons and Disney characters.”

“To target this young of an audience shows that even TikTok knows that many TikTok LIVE users are under 18 years old, despite TikTok saying the opposite,” the complaint reads. 

What’s more is TikTok does not oversee its virtual currency exchanges, the complaint said, allowing the transactions to avoid regulatory framework in place to identify and stop sexual exploitation and other illegal activities like “money laundering, terrorism financing, drug sales, and illegal gambling—abhorrent conduct that TikTok is not only facilitating but also receiving huge profits from.” 

In a statement, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said the allegations against TikTok are “incredibly disturbing.” 

“Such disregard for the safety of young users on the platform, much less profiting off their exploitation, cannot and will not be tolerated. We will take all necessary actions to protect them from TikTok’s egregious behavior,” Cox said. 

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes called TikTok’s monetization of the live stream “money laundering,” while claiming the feature connects victims to predators in real-time. 

“Our investigation confirmed TikTok knows of the damage to young victims but feels it makes far too much money to stop. There are so many layers of harm in its practices that we cannot wait a day longer to act,” Reyes said. 

The lawsuit accuses TikTok of violating Utah’s deceptive acts or practices law by creating an “intentionally confusing” system of virtual currency while failing to notify users it “takes approximately a 50% commission of all virtual transactions.” 

The lawsuit also alleges that TikTok is in violation of the state’s consumer sales practices act “concerning sexual exploitation.” 

“TikTok directly profits from its virtual currency and has continued to profit despite knowing its currency was being used for illegal activities, including, and not limited to, sexual exploitation, trafficking, the distribution of pornography, money laundering, and other illicit activities” 

The state is asking the court to require TikTok to pay for damages “on behalf of consumers well in excess of $300,000,” order an accounting of the LIVE revenue in Utah and pay at least $300,000 in civil penalties. 

The post Lawsuit: Utah calls TikTok’s live stream feature a ‘virtual strip club’ that targets minors appeared first on Utah News Dispatch.