French families are suing TikTok for health condition of their teen children

Seven French families have filed a lawsuit against TikTok, accusing the social media platform of exposing their teenage children to harmful content with its algorithm. Two of the teens involved committed suicide.

It all started with 15 year old teenager Marie. She was being mocked for her overweight. Like most teenagers of her age, she spent a lot of time on TikTok.

On the video platform she watched lots of videos about weight loss. Those videos not only offered diet tips, but also dealt with self-mutilation and depression. Eventually, Marie hung herself in her room in 2023.

Her parents filed a civil complaint against TikTok for incitement to commit suicide, failure to assist a person in danger, and propaganda or advertising of means of committing suicide.

A year later, the complaint is still under investigation at the prosecutor’s office in Marseille.

In the meantime, Marie’s parents have gathered six other families who were dealing with similar situations. They contacted Marie’s mother Stephanie when they saw her on television. That’s when the idea for setting up a criminal class-action lawsuit came to mind. The collective is called Argos Victima.

Stephanie describes TikTok’s algorithm as a “killing machine”. She hopes the lawsuit will force TikTok to regulate its practices and moderate content offered to vulnerable users.

“TikTok, like other giants in the sector, must answer for its actions and negligence. The families involved in this action are denouncing the devastating effects of the application on the mental and physical health of their children, two of whom have unfortunately committed suicide,” said Laure Boutron-Marmion, lawyer of the Argos Victima collective, to the French public broadcasting service Franceinfo.

TikTok’s French division told the media it can’t comment on ongoing legal proceedings, because it hasn’t been in contact with anyone. A spokesperson added that the platform prohibits videos “exposing, promoting, or sharing plans for suicide or self-harm”.

In October, the European Commission sent a request for information to several social media platforms, including TikTok, to learn more about their engagement-based algorithms and recommendation systems.

Among other things, the Commission wants to know what TikTok does to discourage the spread of illegal content and how to avoid manipulation by malicious groups on the platform.