MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota case against media giant TikTok as exploiting children into online addiction has passed a hurdle. Hennepin County District Judge Rachna Sullivan ruled that the state can sue under consumer protection laws. The judge rejected Tik Tok’s insistence that internal corporate documents are not anyone else’s business. Tik Tok, she said, must provide documents so that Minnesota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, to proceed with his case. At stake could be massive fine against social media giants on a scale like those that decimated the U.S. tobacco industry in the 1990s. The Ellison argument is that Tik Tok designed products to maximize its own profits by luring children into harmful addiction with short-form videos.
Earlier: Expert: Ellison has uphill battle against Tik Tok
Earlier: Lawsuit: Tik Tok snaring kids with “digital nicotine”