Indiana attorney general urges Hoosiers to delete TikTok app from their devices

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The state’s chief legal officer is urging all Hoosiers and Indiana-based companies to “patriotically delete” the TikTok video-sharing application from every one of their smartphones and other mobile devices.

Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican originally from Munster, claims TikTok is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), through the government of China, and the app is being used to manipulate and spy on Americans.

“Indiana residents should not wait for Congress and the Biden White House to take action against this deceptive social networking app. We’ve got to take the initiative ourselves,” Rokita said.

Records show TikTok is the most popular app in the world with more than 3.5 billion downloads since 2018. Some 130 million Americans, including two-thirds of U.S. teenagers, report regularly using the video-sharing program.

Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita speaks along the U.S.-Mexico border about immigration, drugs, and other border issues

Rokita believes, however, TikTok is designed to use Americans’ smartphones to capture their attention and track their behavior, and he contends the app is riddled with security flaws that could transmit users’ personal data directly to the Chinese government.

In addition, Rokita claims TikTok misleads Americans by exposing them to sexually lewd content that isn’t available to Chinese users of the app operated by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd.

“The app is not only full of toxic material, which is highly inappropriate for children, but it also opens us up to foreign threats. Specifically, it allows a Chinese company overseen by the CCP to take our data,” Rokita said.

“China has said they want to be the dominant force in the world. This kind of technology is part of that strategy. We need patriots who will fight back against the dangers imposed by this app and others that are no doubt on the way,” he added.

Earlier this month, Rokita filed two lawsuits against ByteDance at the superior court in Fort Wayne alleging TikTok videos routinely expose children to adult content and claiming the company fails to protect the personal information of Hoosier consumers.

“The TikTok app is a malicious and menacing threat unleashed on unsuspecting Indiana consumers by a Chinese company that knows full well the harms it inflicts on users,” Rokita said upon filing the lawsuits. “In multiple ways, TikTok represents a clear and present danger to Hoosiers that is hiding in plain sight in their own pockets.

“At the very least, the company owes consumers the truth about the age-appropriateness of its content and the insecurity of the data it collects on users. We hope these lawsuits force TikTok to come clean and change its ways.”

Records show that while Indiana’s TikTok lawsuit was filed by the attorney general, it’s actually being pursued by attorneys from Cooper & Kirk PLLC, a Washington-based law firm working for the state on a contingency basis with the potential to earn a multimillion-dollar payout based on any recovery from TikTok.

Separately, Rokita joined 14 other Republican state attorneys general Dec. 13 in a joint letter to Apple and Google requesting the two app-store operators redesignate TikTok as a “17+” or “mature” app, in place of its “12+” or “teen” advisory rating.

They claim parents rely on the accuracy of the app store’s age ratings to help them decide which apps to allow their children to use, and the rating assigned to TikTok does not accurately reflect the content available on the service.

“Wow, man. What a scene. You can’t make up what we see out here on any given day,” Hobart patrol officer Tommie Tatum said.

Jerry Davich, The Times

“The TikTok app contains frequent and intense alcohol, tobacco and drug use or references, sexual content, profanity and mature/suggestive themes,” the letter says. “TikTok users can search for hundreds of thousands of hashtags related to these topics, which each return thousands of videos in these categories.

“When parents are deceived into letting their kids download TikTok, there are real consequences. Exposure to drug, alcohol and tobacco content on social media makes kids more likely to use or experiment with those illicit substances in real life. And exposure to sexual content on TikTok can lead to pornography addiction and even the sexual exploitation of kids by online predators.”

The letter also warns Apple and Google that any failure or refusal to update their TikTok age ratings may result in legal action, including potential civil penalties.

Democratic President Joe Biden is expected in coming days to sign into law a measure approved last week by the Democratic-controlled Congress prohibiting the installation or use of TikTok on mobile devices owned by the federal government.