TikTok must face lawsuit over Pennsylvania girl's 'blackout challenge' death

TikTok must now face a lawsuit brought by the mourning mother of a 10-year-old girl from Pennsylvania who died while she attempted a viral challenge that dares participants to choke themselves until they pass out.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court in Philadelphia on Tuesday revived the suit filed by Tawainna Anderson after her daughter, Nylah Anderson, discovered the so-called “Blackout Challenge” via her “For You” feed on TikTok.

On Dec. 7, 2021, Anderson said she discovered her daughter hanging in the closet of their home in Chester, just outside Philadelphia, and “near the point of death,” according to court documents.

Nylah, described by loved ones as a fun-loving “butterfly, died at a hospital five days later. Before her death, she was “an active, happy, healthy, and incredibly intelligent child,” the suit said. “Though only 10 years old, Nylah spoke three languages.”

According to Anderson’s lawsuit, TikTok’s “algorithm determined that the deadly Blackout Challenge was well-tailored and likely to be of interest to 10-year-old Nylah Anderson, and she died as a result.” What’s more, the documents noted, other children had already died participating in the social media trend, which peaked in popularity in 2021.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 2022, was initially dismissed. In making the decision, a district court judge cited Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which is typically used to protect internet companies from liability for content posted on their sites.

The ruling on Tuesday reversed some of the decision, sending the case back to the lower court for trial.

“Nylah, still in the first year of her adolescence, likely had no idea what she was doing or that following along with the images on her screen would kill her,” Judge Paul Matey wrote. “But TikTok knew that Nylah would watch because the company’s customized algorithm placed the videos on her ‘For You Page.”

Anderson has accused TikTok of wrongful death and negligence.

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