Published October 30, 2024
Earlier this month, another bombshell burst over the heads of the beleaguered tech industry when 14 state attorneys general announced coordinated lawsuits against TikTok for knowingly and willfully exploiting young users. Recognizing that such users were the “golden audience” for the platform because of their inability to resist its addictive pull, TikTok executives designed their algorithms to attract teenagers in as little as 35 minutes while making only halfhearted efforts to suppress and remove dangerous and pedophilic content. If that wasn’t bad enough, sealed court documents in Kentucky’s suit were accidentally unredacted, giving reporters access to TikTok’s internal memos. The documents are utterly damning.
In one memo, TikTok’s research showed that “compulsive usage correlates with a slew of negative mental health effects like loss of analytical skills, memory formation, contextual thinking, conversational depth, empathy, and increased anxiety.” But since young users were most likely to use the app compulsively, they were particularly targeted. “As expected, across most engagement metrics, the younger the user, the better the performance,” said one document.
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Brad Littlejohn, Ph.D., is a Fellow in EPPC’s Evangelicals in Civic Life Program, where his work focuses on helping public leaders understand the intellectual and historical foundations of our current breakdown of public trust, social cohesion, and sound governance. His research investigates shifting understandings of the nature of freedom and authority, and how a more full-orbed conception of freedom, rooted in the Christian tradition, can inform policy that respects both the dignity of the individual and the urgency of the common good. He also serves as President of the Davenant Institute.
