One of the most popular video-sharing platforms, Tiktok, sued in California. The incident occurred in California, USA, when 2 young girls died while trying out the “Blackout Challenge. The families of those girls sued TikTok for the incident of their daughters due to the challenge TikTok.
They blamed the death of the girls on TikTok, claiming that its algorithms led to their children’s deaths. They sued TikTok in Los Angeles’ state court last week. The “Blackout Challenge” requires one to choke themselves until they pass out. This deadly challenge grew in popularity over TikTok, and the two girls trying out the TikTok trend died.
Matthew Bergman, an attorney at the Social Media Victims Law Center, said, “TikTok needs to be held accountable for pushing deadly content to these two young girls.”
As Matthew filed the lawsuit, “TikTok has invested billions of dollars to intentionally design products that push dangerous content that it knows are dangerous and can result in the deaths of its users.”
One victim, Lalani Erika Renee Walton, was 8 years old, and she died on 15th July 2021, drectly due to the “Blackout Challenge.” She used to think about becoming TikTok famous and didn’t know the dangers that TikTok was pushing her into.
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The other victim was Arriani Jaileen Arroyo, a 9 years old girl who “gradually became obsessed” with posting videos on TikTok. Her parents even mentioned to her an incident of a young girl dying due to a challenge. However, she assured me that she wouldn’t do such a thing.
However, the following month after the incident, on 26th February 2021, her 5-year-old brother found her not breathing. The family took her to the hospital but unfortunately that couldn’t save her life.
The Lawsuit Against TikTok
The lawsuit against TikTok lists several complaints, which include the fact that the algorithm of TikTok promotes harmful content, fails to warn users about it being addictive, and enables even underage children to use it.
Both the Arroyo and Walton families have asked for a sum for happenings that took place due to TikTok. TikTok was sued in the US due to the lawsuits filed by both families.
