According to alleged leaked documents from TikTok, the platform would give more visibility to “beautiful people,” while “less attractive” people would be less promoted.
About 14 U.S. states, including California and New York, are suing TikTok after alleged leaked documents showed that the platform gives more visibility to “more beautiful people.”
According to NPR, investigators from Kentucky claimed that users’ feeds would be filled with “more attractive people” after the algorithm detected a higher volume of “unattractive” individuals.
The lawsuit also states that the platform would be “promoting a narrow beauty standard.”
The complaint also mentions the time children and young people are spending on TikTok and how this could contribute to a mental health crisis among teenagers.
“TikTok intentionally targets children because it knows they do not yet have defenses or the ability to create healthy boundaries around addictive content,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
A TikTok spokesperson, Alex Haurek, stated in response on Thursday (October 17) that the media were “selecting misleading excerpts” and decontextualizing “outdated documents” to compromise the company.
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