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TikTok Is Harming Children at an Industrial Scale
by ButterflyEffect

    Our evidence comes mostly from research done by those 14 Attorneys General. Some of their briefs have been posted online for the world to see. The briefs include hundreds of quotations from internal reports, memos, Slack conversations, and public statements in which executives and employees of TikTok acknowledge and discuss the harms that their company is causing to children. We organize the evidence into five clusters of harms:

    Addictive, compulsive, and problematic use

    Depression, anxiety, body dysmorphia, self-harm, and suicide

    Porn, violence, and drugs

    Sextortion, CSAM, and sexual exploitation

    TikTok knows about underage use and takes little action

    We show that company insiders were aware of multiple widespread and serious harms, and that they were often acting under the orders of company leadership to maximize engagement regardless of the harm to children. As one internal report put it: