A French mother is suing TikTok, alleging the platform's algorithm promoted harmful content that contributed to her daughter's suicide. Stephanie Mistre claims TikTok normalized depression and self-harm, pushing dangerous content to her 15-year-old daughter, Marie Le Tiec. Mistre is joined by six other families in the lawsuit, accusing TikTok of failing to moderate harmful content and exposing children to life-threatening material. TikTok denies the allegations, stating it has strict guidelines against suicide promotion and employs thousands of moderators to remove dangerous posts.
Stephanie Mistre, 51, holds a picture of her daughter, Marie Le Tiec, a teenager who died by suicide in 2021, on Dec. 10, 2024, in Cassis, southern France. In the moment when her world shattered three years ago, Stephanie Mistre found her 15-year-old daughter, Marie, lifeless in the bedroom where she died by suicide.
Now Mistre and six other families are suing TikTok France, accusing the platform of failing to moderate harmful content and exposing children to life-threatening material. Out of the seven families, two experienced the loss of a child. Above all, Mistre blames TikTok, saying that putting the app “in the hands of an empathetic and sensitive teenager who does not know what is real from what is not is like a ticking bomb.”
While most teens use social media without significant harm, the real risks, Borst said, lie with those already facing challenges such as bullying or family instability. “Their strategy is insidious,” Mistre said. “They hook children into depressive content to keep them on the platform, turning them into lucrative re-engagement products.”
TikTok, which faced being shut down in the U.S. until President Donald Trump suspended a ban on it, has also come under scrutiny globally. In France, Boutron-Marmion expects TikTok Limited Technologies, the European Union subsidiary for ByteDance — the Chinese company that owns TikTok — to answer the allegations in the first quarter of 2025. Authorities will later decide whether and when a trial would take place.
The term “algospeak” has been coined to describe techniques such as using zebra or armadillo emojis to talk about cutting yourself, or the Swiss flag emoji as an allusion to suicide.
SOCIAL MEDIA SUICIDE TIKTOK LAWSUIT MENTAL HEALTH
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