Streams on TikTok Live were used to exploit children, according to a newly unredacted lawsuit filed by Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes. The lawsuit says that TikTok was not only aware that TikTok Lives were exposing minors to concerning messages from adults, but the company also directly profited off of some of the exchanges through TikTok Live’s virtual gifting system.
Following an investigation by Forbes into TikTok Live, TikTok conducted its own review called “Project Meramec,” according to the suit. The company found that “hundreds of thousands of children” were getting around TikTok’s age restrictions, hosting livestreams and interacting with adults.
Because TikTok pockets a portion of the sale of digital gifts in livestreams, the company was technically making money on “transactional gifting” over “nudity and sexual activity” that happened during streams. And since TikTok’s…
