Why pick this particular fight with Tick Tock? It's already being sued by the feds for child privacy issues. It might even be banned in the United States. Tell us the underlying reason for pursuing this. Well, we know we're facing a youth mental health crisis in this country, and unfortunately, New Jersey is no exception. And as we have shown in a number of actions, we know that social media companies have knowingly targeted our youth in ways that have damaged their mental health and caused them real harm. And then to make matters worse, they've told the public that these products are safe when they themselves know they are not. So the lawsuits that New Jersey and several other states filed yesterday are meaningfully different than the lawsuit that you referenced that the Department of Justice has filed. It's for violation of our state consumer laws for, again, misleading the public about the safety of their products and deliberately treating our youngest

residents as nothing more than commodities. Let's talk about what's materially different from October the 24th last year when New Jersey and other states also sued Meta, the parent company of Instagram or Facebook, again, to protect children, mental health, and the like. How are the two actions different? What do you see in particular with TikTok? Well, legally, they are distinct lawsuits. And these investigations have been underway for some time. And investigations of these kinds take time. But as a general matter, we know that social media companies like Meta and TikTok have targeted our youth, have deliberately taken steps to keep our youth on their platforms for long periods of time, have implemented features like TikTok has with respect to body image features that allow you to put yourself on TikTok as if you had plastic surgery or extensive makeup that cause real harm to kids' mental health, that's created body dysmorphia crises, and mental health crises, particularly

amongst young girls. And so in that sense, the lawsuits are similar in that you see similar patterns across them, but they are distinct lawsuits and meta because the Department of Justice had not filed a federal claim about children's privacy in matter. We filed a claim there under that law, whereas the Department of Justice, as you noted, had stepped in on TikTok. So we did not need to file a federal claim. But otherwise, there are some similarities across the two complaints. Well, Attorney General Platkin, forgive me, but for many of your constituents, that's a fair question. What's the point? There is a federal suit against TikTok. There's a legislative effort to get it banned in this country. And you've chosen a long path with this specific initiative. Why do it if there are all those others already in place, some of which have analogous goals with what you're trying to achieve. Well, the federal lawsuit, plain and

simple, covers different conduct. Here we're talking about deliberately misleading the public about the safety of their products, about telling people that their product is safe when they know it's not. When the United States surgeon general has said publicly it's not that they should have a warning label on it. And kids are using Tik Tok in particular for hours and hours a day when we know just a few hours of tick tock a day can cause significant mental health harms to our kids. Now, I'm the state's attorney general. I'm the chief law enforcement officer for 9.3 million people. My job is to keep them safe. And when I see a company peddling a product targeting our youngest residents, treating them for nothing more than dollar signs and putting profit ahead of their mental health, then I have an obligation to step in and protect them. And that's what this lawsuit and the lawsuit against matter is doing. Mr. Plotkin, if this proceeds and goes before a jury, how will you show that

what TikTok does is intentional, that it is malicious? In your accusation that they are profiting off young users. Well, I'm not going to speak to what would eventually show at a trial, but I think our complaint lays out very clearly what TikTok knew and the harms that their products have caused, including me. The result is that we have essentially compulsive users of TikTok products ages 13 to 17 throughout our state and throughout this country. And we know at the same time we're experiencing a massive spike in mental health challenges for our youth suicidal ideation, depression, anxiety, all up at historic levels. So we're very confident in the case that we've brought against TikTok. We obviously wouldn't bring a lawsuit like this if we didn't feel very confident in our case and if we weren't prepared to take on what is, as with matter one of the largest companies in the world.

And my message is simple. We're ready for that fight.

NJ Attorney General: Youth Facing Mental Health Crisis

Welcome to the Bloomberg Technology YouTube channel. Subscribe for original series and mini-docs on game-changing technologies, profiles on innovators, live conversations with experts, and breaking technology news & analysis from Bloomberg TV.

NJ Attorney General: Youth Facing Mental Health Crisis

NJ Attorney General: Youth Facing Mental Health Crisis

Scripts