Ciria Lopez 4612 Dona Katalina Dr SW

Albuquerque, NM 87121
(505) 227-5155

November 14, 2021

TikTok Inc.,
Attn: TikTok Legal Department
5800 Bristol Parkway, Suite 100,
Culver City, CA 90230

Dear Legal Department:

The purpose of this letter is to formally file a complaint regarding your company, based on
dangers rising from the creation of youth accounts on your platform. Your platform alone is
responsible for promoting alcoholism, eating disorders, and causing deaths. I will go into detail
on each and give you suggestions on how to prevent tragedies in the future.

Before I go into detail on the dangers of your platform, I want to address your policy on youth
accounts which is “TikTok has a 12+ rating in the App Store, which lets parents use device-level
controls to block their teen from downloading the app” (TikTok, 2019). My concern is for the
children raised by grandparents or absent parents that can access the app freely. You addressed
that by stating “When our safety team believes that an account may belong to an underage person
the account will be suspended” (TikTok, 2019). To that I ask, what prevents the person from
creating another account and avoiding the underage detection triggers to keep an existing
account?

Following, your platform promotes alcoholism amongst youth. A study conducted by Russell et
al., 2021 stated “The vast majority (98%) of videos expressed pro-alcohol sentiment…Positive
associations with alcohol were prevalent.” Exposing our kids to alcohol in a positive light at an
early age gives them essentially a green light to alcohol consumption earlier in life. This is in fact
due to kids’ vulnerability to follow top-rated trend, that is including alcohol. My suggestion,
prohibit all alcohol related content in your platform. That is, if you truly want to be a family-
oriented platform. I do not see how alcohol content is beneficial in any way given the devastating
epidemic we have of alcoholism in teens.

Thereafter, living in a society that depicts how we should look, dress, and behave positivity is
not being expressed in your platform. Leading to eating disorders among our youth. Your
organization claims to have an algorithm for tracking and deleting pro-anorexia content on your
platform. However, such algorithms are designed to have loop wholes discovered by researchers.
In essence making “the quest for transparency always be a game of cat and mouse between major
tech platforms and underresourced, independent researchers” (Boyd, A. 2021) My
recommendation is the same a for your platform in addition to sharing the number of content
 Ciria Lopez 4612 Dona Katalina Dr SW
Albuquerque, NM 87121
(505) 227-5155

removed also share the way your algorithm detected such videos and provide a simulation so
other people can detect such content and report it.

Lastly, your platform is leading to deaths among youth. When parents read the headline “9-Year-
Old Boy Dies While Attempting TikTok Challenge.” (Beresford, J. 2021) it sends chills down
our spine. My recommendation is to remove all content that encourages trends or challenges.
You claim that your mission is to “inspire creativity and bring joy” (TikTok, 2021), then #trends,
#challenges need to go; they do not inspire creativity nor bring joy. I have personally seen great
videos on TikTok that do inspire, teach, and promote safety, but trends and challenges are not
one of them.

It is time to break free the normal practices of social media, be the change TikTok, be the
platform that promotes positivity not wealth.

Thank you for taking time to read my letter and considering acting. If you have any questions,
comments, or concerns I can be reached via mobile phone at (505) 227-5155 or through email at
ctalamantes@unm.edu.

Respectfully,

Ciria Lopez, ADN, RN

 Ciria Lopez4612 Dona Katalina Dr SW
Albuquerque, NM 87121
(505) 227-5155

References

Beresford, Jack. “9-Year-Old Boy Dies While Attempting Tiktok Challenge.” Newsweek,

Newsweek, 28 Oct. 2021, https://www.newsweek.com/9-year-old-boy-dies-attempting-
tiktok-challenge-1643373. 

Boyd, A. (2021, August 9). Don't Be Fooled by Social Media Companies. New York Times,
A17(L). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A671205756/AONE?
u=albu78484&sid=ebsco&xid=a6b4a46c

na. “Transparency Center.” TikTok, https://www.tiktok.com/transparency?lang=en. 

Russell, A. M., Davis, R. E., Ortega, J. M., Colditz, J. B., Primack, B., & Barry, A. E. (2021).
#alcohol: Portrayals of alcohol in top videos on Tiktok. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and
Drugs, 82(5), 615–622. https://doi.org/10.15288/jsad.2021.82.615 

TikTok. (2019, August 16). Our work to keep TikTok a place for people 13 and over. Newsroom.
Retrieved November 11, 2021, from https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-eu/our-work-to-keep-
tiktok-a-place-for-people-13-and-over-eu.