Indiana sued Chinese-owned short-video sharing app TikTok on Wednesday, alleging it is deceiving users about China’s access to their data and exposing children to mature content .
Republican Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office said the popular app, owned by ByteDance, violates state consumer protection laws by not disclosing the Chinese government’s ability to access sensitive consumer information.
Rokita’s office said in a complaint filed Wednesday that TikTok deceived young users and their parents with an over-12 age rating in Apple and Google’s app stores. The complaint states that inappropriate sexual and drug-related content can be easily found and provided by the company to children using TikTok.
Indiana stated that its action was the first of its kind by a US state. Rokita is seeking emergency injunctive relief and civil penalties against the company.
A spokeswoman for the video sharing app said it had no comment on the pending lawsuit.
The legal action was first reported by The New York Times.
Also on Wednesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he has ordered all state agencies in Texas to ban TikTok on government-issued devices. Abbott tweeted that the Chinese Communist Party is a growing threat to US cyber security.
The Indiana and Texas actions followed an emergency directive issued a day earlier by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, barring the use of TikTok on state government equipment and networks.
South Dakota Governor Christi Noem signed an executive order last week barring state employees and contractors from installing or using TikTok on state-owned equipment, and South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster on Monday asked a state agency to ban TikTok from state government phones and computers.
TikTok has said that the concerns fueling the state ban stem largely from misinformation.
Last month, FBI Director Chris Wray said TikTok’s US operations raised national security concerns the Chinese government could use the video-sharing app to influence users or control their devices.
Former President Donald Trump attempted in 2020 to block new US users from downloading WeChat and TikTok, which would have effectively blocked use of the apps in the United States, but lost a series of court battles.
In June 2021, President Joe Biden rolled back Trump’s executive orders that sought to ban downloads and directed the Commerce Department to review security concerns posed by the apps.
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