Mother Of Deceased 10-Year-Old Daughter Is Suing TikTok. The Girl Suffocated In The "Blackout Challenge"

The mother of a ten-year-old girl who died of suffocation as a result of the "Blackout Challenge" is suing the social network TikTok. She claims that her daughter suffocated after the algorithm recommended her challenge. According to Business Insider, Bytedance is also facing the lawsuit. The call, in which participants held their breath until they passed out, claimed at least four more victims.

In the indictment, Tawainna Anderson of Pennsylvania claims that a recommendation for a dangerous challenge appeared on her daughter's homepage last December, just days before her death. Ten-year-old Nylah, whom her mother found unconscious in a child's room on December 7, died after five days in the hospital.

Tiktok sued after 10-year-old dies in ‘blackout challenge’ https://t.co/f7eGTePwal

— The Independent (@Independent) May 13, 2022

The indictment states that TikTok's algorithm evaluated that the challenge could appeal to the girl as it corresponded to her interests. According to the plaintiffs, Tiktok did not change its algorithm even after several user deaths. "It intentionally did not intervene, as this would reduce the reach of the application as well as its financial gain."

After analysing the contents of the girl's phone, the forensic expert confirmed that she learned about the challenge from Tiktok. However, in response to Nylah's death as a result of the "Blackout Challenge," a platform spokesman told the New York Post that the worrying challenge preceded the platform's operation and therefore could not be linked to it.

Dangerous challenges appear regularly on TikTok and other social networks. In 2017, they experienced a series of poisonings in the USA after young people ate washing tablets as part of the "Tide Pod challenge". In 2019, videos from the "Blindfold Challenge" appeared on Youtube, in which participants performed common activities, such as driving a vehicle, blindfolded.