Parents sue TikTok: More lawsuits over \u201cblackout challenge\u201d deaths Unsplash.com: Solen FeyissaTikTok is facing legal action following the deaths of two children, who passed away after attempting the \u201cblackout challenge.\u201d The parents have now spoken out about why they\u2019re taking action against the video-sharing app. Earlier this year, TikTok was hit with a lawsuit from Pennsylvania mother Tawainna Anderson, whose 10-year-old daughter, Nylah, had passed away after purportedly attempting the \u201cblackout challenge\u201d she\u2019d seen on TikTok. Nylah\u2019s death occurred in December 2021. Nylah\u2019s family rushed her to the hospital, but she did not survive, leaving her relatives distraught and searching for answers. Now, other parents are taking legal action against the viral video platform following the deaths of two more children due to the \u201cblackout challenge.\u201d The \u201cblackout challenge\u201d refers to a trend where people attempt to hold their breath or even strangle themselves for as long as possible before passing out. Two children dead after reportedly trying TikTok \u201cblackout challenge\u201d Nine-year-old Arriani Jaileen Arroyo and eight-year-old Lalani Erika Walton were both found deceased after watching videos of the blackout challenge. A report from the LA Times claims that Lalai\u2019s stepmother found her stepdaughter \u201changing from her bed with a rope around her neck\u201d after watching blackout challenge clips. Read More: What is TikTok\u2019s \u2018Hi I\u2019m Dory\u2019 dance trend? – Arriani\u2019s father reportedly discovered his daughter \u201changing from the family dog\u2019s leash\u201d in the basement after \u201cshe gradually became obsessive\u201d over TikTok. Two wrongful death suits have been filed against the social media company in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, one of which argues that \u201cTikTok\u2019s product and its algorithm directed exceedingly and unacceptably dangerous challenges and videos.\u201d \u201cThis is not easy, to wake up every day and know that your little girl is never coming back,\u201d Arriani\u2019s mother Christal Arroyo Roman said on Good Morning America. \u201cWe just never thought that there was a darker side to what TikTok allows on its platform.\u201d The lawsuit claims that \u201cTikTok\u2019s algorithm was designed to promote \u2018TikTok Challenges\u2019 to young users to increase their engagement and maximize TikTok\u2019s profits.\u201d Although TikTok has not yet commented on these two most recent lawsuits at the time of writing, the company did reach out to clarify criticism regarding the \u201cblackout challenge\u201d last year. \u201cThis disturbing \u2018challenge,\u2019 which people seem to learn about from sources other than TikTok, long predates our platform and has never been a TikTok trend,\u201d a TikTok spokesperson said. It\u2019s true that the blackout challenge has been around for some time, with studies reporting that 82 children were fatally injured after trying the dare between 1995 \u2013 2007. These latest suits follow news of FCC commissioner Brendan Carr urging both Apple and Google to ban TikTok from their app stores, claiming the platform presents \u201ca serious national security threat.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Parents sue TikTok: More lawsuits over \u201cblackout challenge\u201d deaths Unsplash.com: Solen FeyissaTikTok is facing legal action following the deaths of two children, who passed away after attempting the \u201cblackout challenge.\u201d The parents have now spoken out about why they\u2019re taking action against the video-sharing app. Earlier this year, TikTok was hit with a lawsuit from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}