TikTok hearing 'deeply painful' says campaigner Ellen Roome
BBC • • world
Key Points:
- Ellen Roome, a British mother, is suing TikTok in the US after her 14-year-old son Julian died in 2022, alleging his death was linked to a dangerous "blackout challenge" on the platform.
- The lawsuit claims TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, engineered addictive algorithms that pushed children into risky behaviors, leading to multiple deaths.
- Roome is campaigning for "Jools' Law," which would allow parents to access their deceased child's social media data without a court order, and for broader social media safety reforms.
- TikTok has moved to dismiss the case, arguing jurisdiction issues and that UK law protects them from liability for user-generated content, while stating they prohibit dangerous content and comply with
