Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman’s lawsuit against TikTok will move forward, a state judge ruled on Friday, clearing its first major hurdle.
Scott County Circuit Judge Kathryn Gabhart ruled against TikTok’s arguments, saying that the state court has jurisdiction in the case, and that the First Amendment’s free speech protections don't bar the lawsuit from moving forward, among other arguments.
The First Amendment protects editorial judgment, but it doesn’t protect a company from lawsuits over “false or misleading commercial speech,” Gabhart said in her order. She also ruled that TikTok knowingly conducted business with hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians, sold and delivered ads targeted at Kentucky users, and that the harms Coleman alleges “were experienced in Kentucky, by Kentucky consumers.”
The order is not a ruling on the merits of Coleman’s case, but allows the case to move forward, and potentially closer to trial. In a statement, Coleman said the company intentionally designed its platform to addict children.
“We’ve alleged for two years that TikTok built an addiction machine, targeting our children. This ruling is a critical victory in our fight to hold TikTok accountable and protect Kentucky’s young people,” Coleman said.
A spokesperson for TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In previous statements, TikTok has defended the company’s child safety record and said the complaint “cherry-picks misleading quotes" and misrepresents the company's community safety commitments.
The lawsuit itself was sealed after Kentucky Public Radio published excerpts of the incorrectly redacted document that exposed internal TikTok communications that showed the company’s own research validated many child safety concerns. By copy-and-pasting large excerpts of the documents, KPR was able to read some 30-pages of the documents otherwise kept secret.
TikTok has previously characterized the decision to publish material that was sealed by the court as “highly irresponsible.”
In redacted portions of the lawsuit, the attorney general argued it takes less than 35 minutes for the average user to become addicted, based on internal TikTok research that found a person forms a lasting habit after watching 260 videos.
Redacted portions of the lawsuit also allege that TikTok found its tools to limit time on the app had little impact, and were more concerned with “improving public trust” than reducing time spent. The unredacted documents show that TikTok employees were aware that too much time spent by teens on social media can be harmful to their mental health.
There were numerous other allegations in the lawsuit, including internal concerns about effects on a child’s mental health and ability to look “at someone in the eyes” and issues with content moderation.
At the same time that Kentucky filed its lawsuit against TikTok in October 2024, a dozen other states did so as well, following a more than two-year investigation. They cite the collection of children’s data and mental health concerns.
