EL DORADO, Ark. (Legal Newsline) - TikTok has chosen to fight a lawsuit brought against it by the State of Arkansas in federal court.
The social media company and its parent ByteDance on May 9 removed the case brought by Attorney General Tim Griffin from Union County Circuit Court to U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.
The case makes seven claims under Arkansas state law and says TikTok has deceived users about the risk of access to and exploitation of consumers' content and data by the Chinese government.
It wants TikTok to eliminate all such info from Arkansas users, so the company reckons the action "necessarily raises disputed and substantial federal questions that a federal forum may entertain without disturbing the congressionally approved balance of responsibilities between the federal and state judiciaries."
Griffin and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced three lawsuits in May - two against TikTok and one against Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. They say they exploited youths' growing addiction to their platforms for profit while escaping government oversight.
“TikTok is deceiving the public regarding the harmful content it is putting in the hands of our kids, and it is deceiving the public about its ties to the Chinese Communist Party," Griffin said. "Protecting Arkansas’s youth is my highest calling, and I look forward to the fight.”