TikTok Admits App Causes ‘Negative Mental Health Effects’ on Its Users, Leaked Documents Reveal

TikTok internal communications have been made public for the first time, revealing some troubling details about the harm the app could prove to users. According to NPR, this goes contrary to TikTok’s own research and was released as part of a lawsuit filed against the company by several state attorneys general.

According to NPR, the lawsuits filed by the separate state regulators allege that TikTok was designed with the intention of getting users addicted, which the company is aware of the issues with the app and was publicly misleading about the dangers.

As the outlet notes, however, is how one of the lawsuits filed in Kentucky by the state AG came with faulty redactions. This unveiled some 30 documents that had been redacted but were shown after copying and pasting the text.

Kentucky Public Radio published excerpts of the material that leaked, leading to a judge sealing the entire complaint. But according to NPR, the redacted material highlighted TikTok executives candidly talking about the dangers the app posed to children and summarized studies that showed measures like time management tools that they had touted would “have negligible reduction” in action screen time.

The company faces a ban in the U.S. as a result of a new law forcing the company’s Chinese parent company, Bytedance, to divest the app. TikTok was already fighting this crackdown, but the revelations of the lawsuits could raise more alarms.

TikTok released a statement via spokesman Alex Haurek that defended the company’s record with user and child safety while also condemning the release of the now-sealed details of the lawsuit.

“It is highly irresponsible of NPR to publish information that is under a court seal,” the statement reads. “Unfortunately, this complaint cherry-picks misleading quotes and takes outdated documents out of context to misrepresent our commitment to community safety.

“We have robust safeguards, which include proactively removing suspected underage users, and we have voluntarily launched safety features such as default screentime limits, family pairing, and privacy by default for minors under 16,” the statement ends.

According to the outlet, one of the lawsuits shows that a user can become addicted to the app in as little as 35 minutes. TikTok even reportedly determined the exact amount of content a person views to form a habit, giving users 260 videos before they’re plugged in. Check out more of the details at NPR.