TRAGIC CASE

Mom’s Lawsuit Against TikTok Over Daughter’s Blackout Challenge Death Dismissed

Tawainna Anderson’s 10-year-old daughter, Nylah, died after attempting the dangerous trend.

A grieving mother’s lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company has been dismissed by a judge. Tawainna Anderson blamed the recommendation algorithm of the social media platform for showing her daughter Nylah Anderson, 10, a video of the deadly “Blackout Challenge,” in which people try to choke themselves unconscious. Nylah attempted the challenge at her home in Pennsylvania in December 2021, and her mother found her hanging from a purse strap in a bedroom. Despite being rushed to a hospital, the little girl died after days in intensive care. “TikTok is programming children for the sake of corporate profits and promoting addiction,” plaintiffs wrote in the lawsuit. Judge Paul S. Diamond ruled on Tuesday that TikTok did not create the challenge, but was instead making it “readily available on their site.” “In thus promoting the work of others, Defendants published that work—exactly the activity Section 230 [of the Communications Decency Act] shields from liability,” Diamond wrote in his dismissal.