– Allegations that Tiktok’s software knowingly and frequently posed a ‘blackout’ challenge
Washington, Ta. 09 July 2022, Saturday
A lawsuit has been filed against video making app Tiktok in California, USA. Two young women lost their lives due to the trend ‘Blackout’ challenge on Tiktok. The case against Tiktok was then filed in Los Angeles State Court last week.
Accused of ticking
The complaint alleges that Tiktok’s software is deliberately and frequently posing a ‘blackout’ challenge. The challenge led to the death of an 8-year-old girl in Texas last year and a 9-year-old girl in Wisconsin.
What is this challenge
The controversial ‘blackout’ challenge involves holding your breath until you become unconscious. Both the deceased girls accepted the challenge by drawing from the social media app and lost their lives.
Death of girls due to suffocation
It is alleged in the case that the Tiktok algorithm even reached out to these girls and promoted such a deadly challenge. One girl took the help of a rope to complete the challenge while the other girl suffocated herself using a dog leash.
The complaint also cited deaths caused by the ‘Blackout’ challenge in Italy, Australia.
Tiktok invests billions of dollars to promote hazardous content
Matthew Burjman, a lawyer at the Social Media Victims Law Center who filed the complaint, said: Tiktok has deliberately invested billions of dollars in designing such products, which promote hazardous content. This is dangerous and can result in the death of users. ‘
China’s Baitdance Group owns Tiktok and has not yet commented on the dispute.