As the September 17, 2025 deadline for TikTok’s possible sale or ban in the United States looms, Minnesota has stepped into the national spotlight with a high-stakes lawsuit against the social media giant. The state’s legal challenge, filed by Attorney General Keith Ellison on August 19, accuses TikTok of deploying addictive algorithms that prey on young users, exacerbating a storm of regulatory, legal, and cultural uncertainty swirling around the platform.
"This isn’t about free speech. I’m sure they’re gonna holler that," Ellison declared at a press conference, as reported by the Associated Press. "It’s actually about deception, manipulation, misrepresentation. This is about a company knowing the dangers, and the dangerous effects of its product, but making and taking no steps to mitigate those harms or inform users of the risks."
Minnesota’s lawsuit, filed in state court, alleges violations of consumer protection laws, specifically deceptive trade practices and consumer fraud. The case is the latest in a cascade of legal actions—now totaling about 24 states—aimed at holding TikTok accountable for what critics say are exploitative design features that hook children and teens into compulsive, potentially harmful usage patterns.
This legal offensive is rooted in a broader, bipartisan investigation launched in 2022 by attorneys general from 14 states, scrutinizing TikTok’s impact on young people’s mental health. Thirteen states from that coalition had already filed suits by October 2024, with Minnesota joining after conducting its own probe. Ellison’s office is seeking a court declaration that TikTok’s practices are deceptive, a permanent injunction against those practices, and financial penalties of up to $25,000 for each instance a Minnesota child accessed the app—a figure Ellison estimated could be significant, given that "hundreds of thousands of Minnesota kids" use TikTok.
At the heart of Minnesota’s case are allegations that TikTok’s design is engineered to keep young users glued to their screens. The lawsuit points to the app’s "infinite scroll" feature, which delivers a never-ending stream of personalized videos, and references an internal TikTok report acknowledging that teens are "more susceptible" to negative effects from beauty filters—effects that can contribute to body dysmorphia and eating disorders. According to the lawsuit, TikTok not only deployed hundreds of such filters, but also activated them by default for young users, despite knowing the risks.
Sean Padden, a middle-school health teacher from Roseville, joined Ellison at the press conference, sharing his firsthand observations. He described an "irrefutable spike in student mental health issues," including depression, anxiety, anger, lowered self-esteem, and shorter attention spans—all correlating with increased TikTok use. "It’s an unfair thing to expect that a kid can overcome the pressures and the design features and the research and the brain science of some of the most highly trained people in the world," Ellison added, as quoted by local news outlets.
The lawsuit also targets TikTok’s "LIVE" livestreaming feature, introduced in 2019, which allows users to pay creators through a virtual marketplace. The suit alleges that this unregulated system can enable sexual exploitation, likening the experience to "a virtual strip club" where young streamers may be enticed into inappropriate acts in exchange for virtual money.
In a rhetorical flourish, the lawsuit compares TikTok to "digital nicotine," echoing the legal strategies that states used against Big Tobacco in the 1990s—a campaign that ultimately led to billions in damages and a sharp decline in American nicotine use. The analogy is deliberate, positioning TikTok’s alleged manipulations as a public health threat requiring urgent intervention.
TikTok, for its part, has forcefully rejected Minnesota’s claims. "This lawsuit is based on misleading and inaccurate claims that fail to recognize the robust safety measures TikTok has voluntarily implemented to support the well-being of our community," spokesperson Nathaniel Brown said in a statement. He emphasized that teen accounts come with over 50 features and settings designed for safety, and that the Family Pairing tool allows parents to control screen time, content filters, and privacy settings. "Through our Family Pairing tool, parents can view or customize 20+ content and privacy settings, including screen time, content filters, and our time away feature to pause a teen’s access to our app," Brown added.
The battle over TikTok’s future isn’t just a Minnesota story—it’s a national saga with implications for tech regulation, free speech, and global trade. The legal drama unfolds against the backdrop of a years-long standoff between U.S. officials and ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based parent company. Concerns about data privacy, foreign influence, and national security have fueled efforts to force ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations. In January 2025, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld a federal law requiring such a sale, but enforcement has been repeatedly delayed—most recently by President Donald Trump, who extended the deadline to September 17, 2025.
The uncertainty has left TikTok’s massive American user base—170 million as of January 2024—on edge. Data from SensorTower, cited by TheWrap, show that while TikTok’s global usage rose by 7% in 2025, U.S. usage actually dipped by 2%. Even so, TikTok and YouTube remain neck-and-neck as the country’s leading platforms for watch time, with users averaging 81 minutes per day on each as of July 2025.
The prospect of a ban has prompted creators and advertisers to hedge their bets, increasingly diversifying their presence across platforms like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. "There’s been this constant stop and start, stop and start," journalist and TikTok creator Lisa Remillard told TheWrap. "At this point, I see mostly two responses [from users]: One, ‘It’s not happening. I’ll believe it when it actually happens.’ And two — I have seen this more and more — which is, ‘Just take it at this point. I don’t care anymore.’"
Behind the scenes, potential buyers—including Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, and Andreessen Horowitz—have reportedly expressed interest in acquiring TikTok’s U.S. operations. Yet, as of August 20, 2025, no deal has been finalized, and ByteDance is said to be awaiting approval from Chinese authorities. Meanwhile, creators face a slew of unanswered questions: Will a U.S.-owned TikTok allow cross-border content? How will the platform’s culture change under new management? Will users stay loyal, or will they migrate elsewhere?
For Minnesota, the goal is clear. "We’re not trying to shut them down, but we are insisting that they clean up their act," Ellison said. "There are legitimate uses of products like TikTok. But like all things, they have to be used properly and safely." The state’s lawsuit is part of a broader reckoning with the power—and perils—of social media in the lives of young Americans, and its outcome could ripple far beyond the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
As the clock ticks toward September 17, all eyes are on the courts, the White House, and the tech titans vying for control of one of the world’s most influential apps. However it ends, the battle over TikTok is shaping up to be a defining story of the digital age.
