The families of two girls who died as a result of a challenge on TikTok have filed a lawsuit against the social media platform, claiming that its “dangerous” algorithms are responsible for their deaths.
The parents of two girls who died in a “blackout challenge” on TikTok, which encouraged users to strangle themselves to death, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
One of these children is Lalani Erica Rainey Walton, from Texas, who received a phone as a gift for her eighth birthday in April 2021, and she often posted videos of herself singing and dancing, hoping to become “famous in the world of Tik Tok”.
In July 2021, her family began noticing bruises on her neck, but described it as an accident.
Unbeknownst to them, Lalani began participating in the power outage challenge, before participating in the blackout challenge, or what is also known as the choking game on “Tik Tok”, which ended in her death.
Lalani died on July 15, 2021, as police determined that her death was “a direct result of an attempt to challenge the blackout on the TikTok application, according to the lawsuit.”
On the day of her death, Lallani had spent hours watching videos, including challenge posts, during a family trip.
The other victim mentioned in the lawsuit, brought by the Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC), is nine-year-old Ariane Jaylene Arroyo of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who also got a phone when she was seven years old and read TikTok several times. Several times a day, until she became obsessed and addicted to the application, according to the lawsuit.
In January 2021, the family discussed with the child Ariani, the incident of the death of a young Tik Tok user as a result of a challenge, but the girl assured them that she did not and will never participate in dangerous videos.
However, on February 26, 2021, her five-year-old brother found her not breathing. She was rushed to a local hospital, but eventually respirators failed.