Iowa AG Moves for Temporary Injunction Barring TikTok From Making Content Claims

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird (R) moved to temporarily enjoin TikTok and ByteDance from representing to consumers through Apple’s App Store or elsewhere that the TikTok app contains “none” or only “infrequent/mild” alcohol, tobacco, or drug references; sexual content or nudity; mature/suggestive themes; or profanity or crude humor,” said her motion Wednesday (docket 24-1522) in Iowa District Court for Polk County. The state sued TikTok and ByteDance Jan. 17, calling such representations “lies” (see 2401190018). The temporary injunction is warranted because Iowa “is likely to prove” that TikTok’s App Store age-rating representations and statements in its community guidelines about the promotion of alcohol, tobacco, or drug use “are unlawful deception or material omissions (or both)” under Iowa’s Consumer Fraud Act, said the motion. The statute authorizes the AG to seek and obtain a temporary injunction prohibiting “the person from continuing the practice” made unlawful by the act, the motion said. Without the temporary injunction, Iowa consumers “will be irreparably harmed, and the balance of harms favors the State,” it said.