North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s office is defending the state’s lawsuit against social media platform TikTok. The company filed a motion in January to dismiss the state’s suit.
More than 1 million “children and teens” in North Carolina use TikTok, according to a brief from state Special Deputy Attorney General Joshua Abram. The brief is dated Feb. 24, but a redacted version first appeared on the state Business Court’s website Thursday.
“The State alleges that Defendants design TikTok to exploit the developing brains of these vulnerable minors and to foster excessive, compulsive, and addictive use. This is no accident,” Abram wrote. “Defendants’ business model requires hooking minors, keeping their attention, and collecting data that Defendants can turn into advertising revenue.”
“But compulsive use of TikTok by minors, as Defendants’ own employees recognize, comes at the expense of children’s personal and physical development, sleep, family interactions, and mental health,” the court filing continued. “Defendants willfully ignore these harms and choose not to fix them because, to Defendants, addiction is ‘a very positive metric in our field.’”
“Further, the Complaint alleges a deliberate communications strategy undertaken by Defendants to deceive users and parents to portray TikTok as safe for minors,” Abram wrote. “Defendants created and advertised tools that they said would help minors reduce the amount of time they spend on the app and alleviate other harms. But, by design, Defendants made these tools limited and ineffective.”
“The State brought this action to hold Defendants accountable for unfairly and deceptively designing, operating, and marketing TikTok to ensnare and addict vulnerable minors,” the special deputy attorney general added.
The motion to dismiss the attorney general’s case arrived in North Carolina Business Court on Jan. 10. On the same day the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a federal case challenging a congressional ban against TikTok if it refuses to divest from its Chinese-based parent company.
“The State of North Carolina has sued Defendants, alleging the TikTok platform violates North Carolina’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act (‘UDTPA’). The State’s central theory is that certain ‘design features’ the platform uses to select, organize, and present third-party user-generated speech on the platform are harmful to younger users because they allegedly make viewing this speech ‘addictive.’ In other words, the State contends that the TikTok platform is unlawful because the manner in which it publishes content makes it too ‘engaging’ for younger users,” TikTok’s lawyers wrote in a memorandum supporting the motion to dismiss.
“The State further alleges that Defendants have deceived users by inadequately and inaccurately describing these ‘risks.’ The State’s claims fail as a matter of law, and its Complaint should be dismissed with prejudice,” the court filing continued.
TikTok argued that a North Carolina court “has no power to adjudicate” the case. “Defendants are not at home in North Carolina, and North Carolina is not the focal point of any suit-related conduct,” the company’s lawyers wrote. “The State’s assertion of personal jurisdiction is based primarily on the fact that the platform was available in North Carolina, and that North Carolina users were allegedly harmed by viewing content on the platform.”
Yet a North Carolina court cannot assume jurisdiction “merely because a globally accessible online platform is made available to residents of the forum state,” TikTok lawyers argued.
That’s not the only problem TikTok identified with North Carolina’s lawsuit. “Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act immunizes online platforms from liability as ‘publishers’ of third-party content,” the company’s lawyers wrote. “But publishing activities are what the State targets. The ‘design features’ the State challenges are the means by which user-generated content is selected, organized, and presented — i.e., published — on the platform.”
The US Supreme Court “recently confirmed” in the 2024 case Moody v. NetChoice “that these online publishing activities are inherently expressive activities that are entitled to First Amendment protection,” TikTok’s lawyers wrote.
“And the State’s deception claims are further barred by the First Amendment because they seek to compel the platform to speak by mandating warnings about the alleged risks of user-generated content on the platform,” the court filing continued.
The North Carolina lawsuit also failed to show how TikTok violates the state law, the company argued. “The platform, as designed, is not an unfair business practice. The State’s attempt to use consumer-protection law to impose liability against an online platform for being ‘too engaging’ has no support in North Carolina law. Likewise, the State alleges no deceptive practices.”
“The State’s deception claims are based on nonactionable opinion and aspirational statements about the platform’s general priorities and goals, none of which is objectively verifiable as true or false,” TikTok’s lawyers wrote.
Then-Attorney General Josh Stein publicized the lawsuit on Oct. 8, during the closing weeks of his campaign for governor. A news release from the North Carolina Department of Justice declared “Attorney General Josh Stein Sues TikTok for Harming Children.”
The lawsuit seeks injunctive and monetary relief, including asking the court to order TikTok to stop violating the law and to pay penalties.
The post Jackson defends NC’s TikTok lawsuit against motion to dismiss first appeared on Carolina Journal.