Tenn. AG Office Seeks Information TikTok 'May Have Destroyed' Related to Probe

Tennessee Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Stein moved the court to order TikTok to comply with the AG’s office request for information entered April 17, said his motion to compel Friday (docket 23-0298-1) in Chancery Court of Davidson County for the 20th district at Nashville. The office of Tennessee AG Jonathan Skrmetti (R) asks the court to order TikTok to provide a corporate designee with knowledge of the relevant issues for a deposition and to produce the legal hold notices it circulated to employees in connection with the state’s investigation, said the motion. The state is investigating TikTok under the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act of 1977 for alleged unfair and deceptive business acts and practices in connection with its social media platform used by consumers in Tennessee and elsewhere, said the motion. The state filed the motion to compel to learn the scope of relevant data that TikTok “may have destroyed” during its investigation, and it asked that the court compel TikTok to produce a witness who could provide insight on the matter. The parties resolved the motion to compel through an agreed order requiring TikTok to produce a witness for examination on topics related to its “destruction of evidence,” said Stein. TikTok has not provided a witness “sufficiently knowledgeable about this topic,” Stein said, saying the witness it did provide was “either unwilling or unable to answer questions on topics clearly identified” in the agreed-on order. The order also requires TikTok to produce documents about the examination, but the defendant refused to produce the complete litigation hold notices it circulated to employees in connection with the investigation “and has instead asserted privilege,” it said. TikTok's privilege claim is “baseless because there is sufficient evidence to support a preliminary finding of spoliation,” said the motion. The state also seeks an order requiring TikTok to pay its legal costs in the matter.