Overview

• Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed the case in Hennepin County, accusing TikTok of deceptive and unfair practices under state consumer-protection laws.
• The lawsuit claims TikTok’s recommendation engine and engagement features are engineered to keep young users hooked, exacerbating depression, anxiety and other harms.
• Ellison alleges lax age verification lets minors use Live and virtual gifting, resulting in sexual and financial exploitation, and he brings money‑transmission claims tied to those systems.
• The state seeks a permanent injunction plus up to $25,000 for each instance a Minnesota minor accessed the app, with Ellison estimating hundreds of thousands of affected children.
• TikTok calls the case misleading and points to teen-default settings and a Family Pairing tool, as Minnesota becomes roughly the 24th state to sue following a 2022 multistate probe.