In Utah's second suit against TikTok, which relies on original Forbes reporting, the state alleges that TikTok Live is "a seedy underbelly of sexual exploitation.”
NurPhoto via Getty ImagesThe state of Utah is suing TikTok, alleging one of the platform’s most popular and lucrative features, TikTok Live, is being used to sexually exploit kids and teens, who are performing racy, inappropriate acts in exchange for virtual gifts that can be cashed in for real money.
The lawsuit—which relies in part on the Forbes investigation “How TikTok Live Became ‘A Strip Club Filled With 15-Year-Olds’”—similarly describes TikTok’s video-streamer as “a virtual strip club” and “a seedy underbelly of sexual exploitation.” Citing that reporting and additional internal TikTok materials that support it, obtained as part of a subpoena for documents in a separate ongoing case, Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes and the state’s Division of Consumer Protection accuse TikTok of violating Utah’s Consumer Sales Practices Act and are demanding a jury trial.
“LIVE is far from a safe place for users—particularly children—and these dangers are no accident,” said the heavily-redacted 54-page complaint, filed alongside counsel from the law firm Edelson PC. “The harmful and unconscionable acts on LIVE stem directly from TikTok’s in-app virtual economy, which has already facilitated billions of dollars in transactions. The money is exchanged among users, stored on user accounts, and withdrawn from the platform, with little to no oversight, despite TikTok’s control over the platform. This monetary scheme has fostered an alarming culture of exploitation and illegal activity.”
“You’re paying my bills.”
TikTok is in the midst of an existential crisis in the United States after President Joe Biden signed a law that will ban the app nationwide early next year over national security concerns unless its China-based parent company, ByteDance, agrees to sell the platform to an American owner. But fears about the dangers TikTok can pose to kids predate that national security scrutiny, which exploded in Washington with the onset of the pandemic. A year earlier, the Federal Trade Commission reached a nearly $6 million settlement with TikTok (then Musical.ly) over alleged children’s privacy violations—at the time, a record civil penalty for the agency in this arena. Forbes has since shed light on the prevalence of child sexual abuse material on TikTok; problems with TikTok moderators’ handling of such content and the ways TikTok Live is misused to entice young girls to engage in suggestive, and potentially illegal, shows for adult men on the app.
In one TikTok Live detailed in that Forbes investigation, a 14-year-old in a bralette fielded requests from strangers on a 2,000-person broadcast, some offering “$35 for a flash,” asking to see her feet and telling her they’d send money to her Cash App. “You’re paying my bills,” the young girl told viewers.
In another, a teen slowly cut off her shirt with a pair of scissors as an audience of 3,000 egged her on. “IF U DO THE BLACK PART IM GONNA SEND TIKTOK LIVE 35.000 TIKTOK COINS (400$),” one commenter wrote, urging her to snip her bra. On other TikTok streams, often filmed from girls’ bedrooms and bathrooms, they were offered financial rewards if they’d kiss each other or spread their legs for the camera.
Those watching the broadcasts can buy TikTok coins they can use to purchase and send digital gifts to the hosts of the livestreams. The virtual gifts seem innocuous—they include flowers, hearts, ice cream cones and lollipops—but can be converted to cash by the recipient. (Those “going live” simply link their TikTok and bank accounts to redeem those items for real money.) But on many of the hundreds of TikTok livestreams reviewed by Forbes, the gifts appeared to be sent by adults to minors, which legal and law enforcement experts said can enable predators to groom targets for online or offline sexual abuse and sextortion. The reporting prompted top Republicans in Congress to call for a meeting with TikTok CEO Shou Chew at the end of 2022.
The Utah AG’s office later brought the suit “to stop TikTok’s exploitative monetization scheme and protect Utah youth,” the complaint said. It also alleged that TikTok is not, as is required by federal law, registered with the U.S. Treasury Department’s federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), meaning “every transaction that takes place on the platform avoids regulatory schemes designed to identify and stop sexual exploitation and other illicit 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.”
Utah Governor Spencer Cox said “I find the new allegations against TikTok Live not merely concerning but incredibly disturbing.”
Got a tip about TikTok or children’s safety issues on social media? Reach out securely to Alexandra S. Levine on Signal/WhatsApp at (310) 526–1242 or email at alevine@forbes.com.
TikTok spokesperson Michael Hughes said in an emailed statement that "TikTok 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.” (Utah said in its complaint that “these age restrictions are nothing more than hollow policy statements” and that “TikTok’s age-gating is ineffective, and many kids still join LIVE events daily.”)
Utah also alleged that what the company has said publicly about these issues, including in its response to Forbes’ TikTok Live investigation, does not jibe with what was happening inside the company and was in some cases false, based on internal documents reviewed by the AG’s office. (For example: Utah said TikTok’s claims about its policies and measures aimed at protecting teens, including revoking access to features for users found to be underage, are false, but the complaint redacted internal information explaining why. Utah plans to ask the court to unseal the documents.)
“Our investigation confirmed TikTok knows of the damage to young victims but feels it makes far too much money to stop,” said Utah AG Reyes.
It is the second complaint the state has filed against TikTok. In October 2023, Utah sued the company over its addictive algorithm and other features aimed at maximizing the time young users spend in the app; TikTok filed a motion to dismiss and is awaiting a ruling. Utah is also part of a bipartisan group of state attorneys general investigating TikTok’s alleged harms to underage users.
