TikTok is Sued by Mother Whose Daughter Died After Trying the Blackout Challenge

The "Blackout challenge" has claimed a new victim.

A recent Business Insider report said that a Pennsylvania mother is suing TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, for recommending a video featuring the deadly "blackout challenge" to her child, who died after participating in the challenge.

The "blackout challenge" has been around since 2008 but has recently gained popularity in TikTok, per Insider.

"Blackout Challenge" Lawsuit Details

According to the complaint of the mother in question, Tawainna Anderson, she found her 10-year-old daughter, Nylah, passed out in her bedroom after she took part in the "blackout challenge" on December 7, 2021, which was recommended to her by TikTok's algorithm on Nylah's "For You Page" (FYP).

The videos found in TikTok's FYP came from the video-sharing platform's algorithm, "a recommendation system" that selects videos that a particular user would find interesting, resulting in the FYP containing content "unique and tailored" to a specific user.

Tawainna alleges that TikTok's algorithm found Nylah to be insterested in watching videos featuring the deadly challenge, which led to her trying it out.

For those unaware, the "blackout challenge" is a viral dare on TikTok where users are encouraged to suffocate themselves or hold their breath until they pass out due to the brain receiving not enough oxygen to function, per Good To.

Although Nylah was rushed to a nearby hospital's pediatric intensive care unit after being found, she later succumbed to her injuries, dying on December 12, 2021, five days after she tried the viral TikTok trend.

Tawainna's complaint mentioned that she is not looking to sue TikTok as the publisher of third-party content but as the designer, programmer, manufacturer, and/or distributor of their "dangerously defective social media products," which includes their algorithm.

She also claimed that TikTok is programming children for the sake of corporate profits and promoting addiction.

Tawainna's claims were found to be outside of any potential protection afforded by Section 230(c) of the Communications Decency Act.

Section 230(c) of the Communications Decency Act states that no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

TikTok's Response

A TikTok spokesperson told the New York Post that the "blackout challenge" seemed to originate from sources other than TikTok and that it has long predated the platform's existence and has never been a TikTok trend.

The spokesperson's statement was a response to Tawainna's statement when she spoke to the media about Nylah's death.

Additionally, a separate TikTok spokesperson said that the company is not commenting on Tawainna's lawsuit. However, a search of the hashtag "#blackoutchallenge" on TikTok showed no results on March 13.

A Brief Background of "The Blackout Challenge"

Goodto's article claimed that the "Blackout Challenge" initially existed as a choking game in 2008, while Insider's report stated that the dare started as early as 1995, citing a 2008 CDC study.

To date, the challenge has claimed the lives of at least four other children, as stated in Tawainna's complaint. This count included the death of a 12-year-old due to the viral dare in July 2021.

Meanwhile, the CDC found that the dare has claimed the lives of 82 adolescent boys in 2008 when it released a press release warning parents of the dare, which was known as the "choking game" back then.