The mother of a 10-year-old girl in Pennsylvania has sued Chinese TikTok and its parent company ByteDance, alleging that her son died while participating in the platform’s popular Blackout Challenge trend.
NBC News reports that the mother of a 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl who allegedly died while participating in the viral social network “Blackout Challenge” has filed a fake death lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance. The lawsuit against TikTok was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Thursday.
TikTok video app (AFP/Getty)
In December, Tawaina Anderson’s daughter Nailah died after allegedly participating in a “blackout contest” in which social media users held their breath until they passed out. Anderson learned that his son had died on December 7 and took him to the hospital. Nyla spent several days in the pediatric intensive care unit, but sadly died of her injuries on December 12. Anderson said TikTok and its parent company were careless and had a “flawed design” in their algorithms that exposed children to harmful content.
“The virus and deadly TikTok Blackout Challenge was offered to Naila on the TikTok For You… page as a result of the TikTok algorithm,” the lawsuit said. The lawsuit states, “TikTok’s Defendant Algorithm determined that the Blackout Challenge was well planned and likely involved 10-year-old Niyla Anderson, and she died as a result.”
TikTok said in a statement that the “wake-up call” that people seem to be hearing from sources outside of TikTok was long before our platform was born and was never a TikTok trend.
The company added: “We are vigilant about our commitment to user safety and will remove relevant content immediately if found. We offer our deepest condolences to his family for their tragic loss.”
Read more about NBC News here.
Source: Breitbart
