TikTok once planned to use content posted by its users to influence Mitch McConnell, the lawsuit reveals

• Unredacted court documents accidentally reveal details about a multi-state lawsuit against TikTok.
• Attorneys general in 14 states are suing TikTok over claims it harms children’s mental health.

TikTok is struggling on all fronts.

Earlier this month, attorneys general in 14 states filed lawsuits against TikTok, alleging that the app’s algorithm is addictive and harmful to children. The coordinated legal attack mirrors strategies the government has used against large corporations in the past, such as Purdue Pharma.

The company also faces a congressional deadline to find a new owner for the app in January or face a possible U.S. ban. Lawmakers say they are concerned that TikTok, owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company, could be forced to share data about US users with the Chinese government.

Now, internal TikTok documents included in the state lawsuits are shedding new light on how TikTok tried to influence Congress during its debate over a possible ban.

Although they were heavily redacted, reporters from Kentucky Public Radio were able to read some of the documents included in the Kentucky attorney general’s lawsuit by pasting redacted material from the documents into another file, according to NPR.

One such document revealed that TikTok planned to use its users’ content to influence lawmakers, including influential Senator Mitch McConnell, who supported the TikTok ban.

According to the complaint filed by the Kentucky attorney general, the company identified TikTok videos posted by Kentucky businesses, including a hot dog store, a record store and a bait and ammo store, as potential accounts that they could attract McConnell, NPR reported.

TikTok said in a statement to Business Insider that the company regularly works to educate a “wide range of policymakers about the benefits of our platform, including how 7 million small businesses across the country are using TikTok to reach new customers, grow and create jobs”.

“As is standard practice for other companies, we also monitor public sentiment on company-related issues,” TikTok said.

Documents uncovered by Kentucky Public Radio also detailed other findings in the coordinated state investigation, including that TikTok’s internal investigation showed it knew its app was addictive to children.

TikTok told BI in a statement that the multi-state legal complaint “selects misleading quotes and takes outdated documents out of context to misrepresent our commitment to community safety.”