Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has started an investigation of TikTok, saying his office is looking into the company's "potential facilitation of human trafficking and child privacy violations, as well as other potential unlawful conduct."
"Chinese-owned company TikTok may be complicit in child exploitation, sex trafficking, human trafficking, drug smuggling and other unimaginable horrors. I will get to the bottom of these concerns and make sure Big Tech doesn’t interfere with the safety and security of Texans," Paxton wrote in a statement Friday.
Last month, Governor Greg Abbott urged Paxton to file an injunction to shut TikTok down.
"TikTok should be ashamed, condemned and have legal action brought against it for promoting human trafficking in Texas and the United States of America," Abbott said during a meeting with 13 Republican attorneys general in South Texas on January 27.
Paxton issued two "Civil Investigative Demands" to TikTok Inc. Those demands include an explanation of the company's review practices, how users can report criminal activity, and how TikTok responds to those reports. The CIDs also ask how TikTok notifies law enforcement.
One demand asks how many times law enforcement has contacted TikTok during investigations:
"Please identify the number and jurisdiction of subpoenas, search warrants, or other notifications from law enforcement you have received regarding investigations into or notifications of the following occurring on TikTok:
a) Prostitution
b) Compelling prostitution
c) Promotion of prostitution
d) Sex trafficking
e) Online solicitation of a child
f Possession of child pornography
g) Production of child pornography
h) Child sexual assault
i) Forced labor
j) Domestic servitude
k) Labor trafficking
1) Debt bondage
m Human smuggling for the purpose of trafficking
n) Human smuggling for the purpose of sexual assault"
Other items listed include a request for information about whether the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has ever notified TikTok of possible child exploitation or human trafficking involving the company.
Paxton's office said he wants a response by March 14.
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