Alabama Puts TikTok on Trial Over Claims Its Algorithm Fueled a Teen Mental Health Crisis

TikTok is about to face a jury over what its app does to teenagers. On Monday, Alabama opens the first US trial against TikTok testing claims that the platform fueled a youth mental health crisis, in state court in Montgomery.

Attorney General Steve Marshall's case goes after the product itself. Alabama says TikTok built an endless, addictive feed and an algorithm that steers young users toward violent and self-harm content, then told parents the app was safe.

The state also accuses TikTok of earning teen-friendly ratings in app stores with false claims, and of running age gates that barely work. Anyone can watch videos without an account, which the state argues makes the restricted Kids Mode experience easy to sidestep.

A further count targets what TikTok told Americans about data. Alabama alleges the company misled users about whether the Chinese government could access US user information. The state is seeking civil penalties.

TikTok denies the claims. It says teen safety has been a design priority and leans on Section 230, the federal law that shields platforms from liability for content users post, according to the Economic Times. Whether that shield covers design choices like infinite scroll and recommendation algorithms is exactly what these cases are testing.

Alabama is not alone. More than 27 states and the District of Columbia have filed similar suits. Until now, TikTok settled the cases picked for early trials, which kept its internal documents out of open court. A Montgomery jury may be the first to see them.

The pressure on the industry is already expensive. Meta recently reached a $17.1 billion settlement with 47 states, and $5 billion of it is contingent on TikTok, Snap and YouTube adopting similar teen protections, as Blockonomi reported. A loss for TikTok in Alabama would push it toward those terms.

The company TikTok sends to court is also not the one states first sued. Its US operations now sit in a US-investor-led entity in which ByteDance keeps roughly 20%. That follows years of federal fights over the app, including the $400 million DOJ settlement over children's privacy.

The trial will not ban TikTok, and no verdict is expected soon. But it is the first time a state gets to argue in front of jurors that a social app's design, not just its content, harmed kids.