Keller: Massachusetts's lawsuit against TikTok likely to make a difference?
The opinions expressed below are Jon Keller's, not those of WBZ, CBS News or Paramount Global.
BOSTON - Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell has filed a lawsuit against TikTok, alleging the social media giant deliberately exploited young people.
Do lawsuits against social media companies get results?
It's the latest in a series of lawsuits brought against big social media companies. But is it the best way to fight back?
"Virtually every young person in this Commonwealth uses TikTok," said Campbell. And for many kids, she added, it's become an addiction that's hazardous to their mental health. "Teens report using TikTok for hours a day, often late at night, and this is no accident. Rather, it's a result of TikTok intentionally designing its platform to keep our young people glued to their screens, all in the name of profit."
So Campbell has joined more than a dozen other states in suing TikTok to change its tactics. And if that sounds familiar, it's no wonder. Campbell and other AGs filed a similar suit against Meta last fall. That case is dragging on, as this one likely will in the face of TikTok's deep pockets.
"The lawsuit becomes a stick. It becomes an incentive to make that social media company do it," said WBZ-TV legal analyst Jennifer Roman. "The downside of it, though, is to what cost?"
Why doesn't Congress make laws regulating social media?
Roman noted cases like this demand lots of time and money - taxpayer money. And in the meantime, the alleged mental health crisis rolls on.
"During that extended period of time, nothing is changing from TikTok," Roman said. "They're not gonna change until they have to."
Congress could pass laws to bring the tech companies to heel, but they don't, leaving the courts to play what seems like an endless game of whack-a-mole.
"Technology is just moving at such a rapid pace, and the wheels of justice do not move quickly," noted Roman. "So we're never gonna keep up with what's on the horizon, what's coming next and what those impacts may be."
Some of these lawsuits have gotten results. A federal judge ruled this summer that Google and it's ubiquitous search engine was an illegal monopoly.
But it took nearly four years of legal wrangling to get there, and the appeals process is expected to take at least another five years.
So it seems clear that with the kinds of profits these companies are making off the way they operate, other parties - like parents - are going to have to step up to deal with the mental health fallout. Because - to adapt an old cliche - changes in technology circle the globe while social responsibility is still putting its pants on.
