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TikTok has long been aware that its video livestream feature has been misused to harm children, according to newly revealed details in a lawsuit brought against the social media company by the state of Utah. Those harms include child sexual exploitation and what Utah calls “an open-door policy allowing predators and criminals to exploit users”.
The state’s attorney general says TikTok conducted an internal investigation in which it discovered adults paid teens to “strip, pose, and dance provocatively” using its livestream feature, known as TikTok Live. Another internal investigation showed TikTok Live was used by criminals to launder money, sell drugs and fund terrorist groups, according to the lawsuit.
Utah first brought its suit against TikTok last June, alleging the social media company was profiting off child exploitation. The state built its case using internal documents obtained from TikTok via subpoena. Much of that information, however, had been redacted from public view – until now.
On Friday, Utah’s office of the attorney general released a mostly unredacted version of the suit. TikTok had tried to keep the documents confidential, but a district court judge ruled to unseal the evidence on 19 December, according to Bloomberg. The move comes as TikTok, which is owned by Chinese-based ByteDance, is facing a national ban in the US over its potential to be manipulated by the Chinese government.
“Online exploitation of minors has exploded, leading to depression, isolation, and other tragedies such as suicide, addiction, and trafficking,” Utah’s attorney general, Sean Reyes, said in a statement on Friday. “The fact that [TikTok] serves up minors on ‘TikTok Live,’ knowing the danger, understanding the damage, and still monetizing the exploitation of our kids is unconscionable.”
A TikTok spokesperson said Utah’s lawsuit “ignores” the proactive measures the company has taken. “Instead, the complaint cherrypicks misleading quotes and outdated documents and presents them out of context, which distorts our commitment to the safety of our community,” he said.
The spokesperson said people have to be at least 18 years old to use the live feature and that TikTok offers customizable safety tools for users. But, according to the unredacted version of Utah’s lawsuit, TikTok Live was so lucrative that “the company slow-rolled implementing safety measures”.
Utah’s case against the company is part of a groundswell of lawsuits brought by US attorneys general over the alleged exploitation of children that takes place on various apps. In December 2023, New Mexico sued Meta, alleging Facebook and Instagram “enabled adults to find, message and groom minors” for sexual exploitation.
In October, 13 states and the District of Columbia filed lawsuits against TikTok on grounds similar to Utah. Days after the filing, NPR uncovered a faultily redacted version of Kentucky’s lawsuit, which also revealed TikTok executives knew about the app’s danger to children.
In 2022, after Forbes published an article about teens stripping for money on TikTok Live, TikTok launched an internal investigation, codenamed Project Meramec, according to the unredacted documents. Project Meramec found that nearly 400,000 TikTok Live creators were 16 to 17 years old, and that a “high” number of underage users performed sexualized acts in exchange for digital currency – such as a gift emoji – that could be cashed out for real money.
The company’s investigators said they found a “never-ending stream” of creators who openly admitted they were 14 and 15 years old and held signs on camera that said what they’d do for a specific gift emoji. According to the lawsuit, those signs reportedly said things like “Rose = say daddy”, “ice cream = 360 spin” and “universe = cut shirt”.
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“The advocates said they reported the streams through TikTok’s internal reporting tools, but TikTok found they did not violate its policies,” the lawsuit reads.
TikTok gets a financial share of digital gifts, which can often be as much as a 50%, according to the suit. Utah’s lawmakers say TikTok’s algorithm boosts Live streams that contain sexual content because they tend to be the most lucrative.
Along with Project Meramec, TikTok launched another internal investigation called Project Jupiter in 2021, according to the unredacted documents. This one focused on how Live could be used by organized crime to launder money using the gifting feature. According to the lawsuit, TikTok’s investigators found that criminals were selling drugs and running fraud operations on the platform.
As with underage users and sexual content, the unredacted documents show that TikTok’s investigators identified “high money laundering risk” for Live. But, the lawsuit says, “TikTok never took meaningful measures to curb money laundering or illicit activities.”
