(This Sept 10 story has been repeated with no changes to text.)
Sept 10 (Reuters) – A Texas judge ruled on Thursday that TikTok violated the state’s consumer protection law by misleading users about how it filtered content for minors and whether its “Restricted Mode” feature shielded children from inappropriate material.
• Texas sued TikTok in January 2025, alleging it marketed its platform as safe for children.
• TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.
• According to the ruling, Texas said TikTok told users it would remove content that violated its Community Guidelines, but internally classified some of that material as “hard to find” rather than “do not allow,” allowing it to remain on the platform. Judge Cory Liu agreed that the practice violated the state’s consumer protection law.
• Liu also said Texas had established that TikTok’s “Restricted Mode” did not work as advertised and exposed minors to content the company said would be filtered out.
• The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the case will now proceed to trial, where penalties and other remedies would be determined. The trial is expected to be scheduled next month, according to Paxton’s office.
• TikTok in August agreed to settle three U.S. lawsuits brought by young people who accuse social media companies of designing their platforms to be addictive and harming their mental health. Separately in August, Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle U.S. addiction claims.
(Reporting by Sathvi G Bhat in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Hogue)
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