CASSIS, France (news agencies) — In the moment when her world shattered three years ago, Stephanie Mistre found her 15-year-old daughter, Marie, lifeless in the bedroom where she died by suicide.
“I went from light to darkness in a fraction of a second,” Mistre said, describing the day in September 2021 that marked the start of her fight against TikTok, the Chinese-owned video app she blames for pushing her daughter toward despair.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org. Helplines outside the U.S. can be found at www.iasp.info/suicidalthoughts.
Delving into her daughter’s phone after her death, Mistre discovered videos promoting suicide methods, tutorials and comments encouraging users to go beyond “mere suicide attempts.” She said TikTok’s algorithm had repeatedly pushed such content to her daughter.
“It was brainwashing,” said Mistre, who lives in Cassis, near Marseille, in the south of France. “They normalized depression and self-harm, turning it into a twisted sense of belonging.”
Now Mistre and six other families are suing TikTok France, accusing the platform of failing to moderate harmful content and exposing children to life-threatening material. Out of the seven families, two experienced the loss of a child.
Asked about the lawsuit, TikTok said its guidelines forbid any promotion of suicide and that it employs 40,000 trust and safety professionals worldwide — hundreds of which are French-speaking moderators — to remove dangerous posts. The company also said it refers users who search for suicide-related videos to mental health services.
Before killing herself, Marie Le Tiec made several videos to explain her decision, citing various difficulties in her life, and quoted a song by the Louisiana-based emo rap group Suicideboys, who are popular on TikTok.
Her mother also claims that her daughter was repeatedly bullied and harassed at school and online. In addition to the lawsuit, the 51-year-old mother and her husband have filed a complaint against five of Marie’s classmates and her previous high school.
Above all, Mistre blames TikTok, saying that putting the app “in the hands of an empathetic and sensitive teenager who does not know what is real from what is not is like a ticking bomb.”
Scientists have not established a clear link between social media and mental health problems or psychological harm, said Grégoire Borst, a professor of psychology and cognitive neuroscience at Paris-Cité University.
“It’s very difficult to show clear cause and effect in this area,” Borst said, citing a leading peer-reviewed study that found only 0.4% of the differences in teenagers’ well-being could be attributed to social media use.
Additionally, Borst pointed out that no current studies suggest TikTok is any more harmful than rival apps such as Snapchat, X, Facebook or Instagram.
While most teens use social media without significant harm, the real risks, Borst said, lie with those already facing challenges such as bullying or family instability.
“When teenagers already feel bad about themselves and spend time exposed to distorted images or harmful social comparisons,” it can worsen their mental state, Borst said.
Lawyer Laure Boutron-Marmion, who represents the seven families suing TikTok, said their case is based on “extensive evidence.” The company “can no longer hide behind the claim that it’s not their responsibility because they don’t create the content,” Boutron-Marmion said.
The lawsuit alleges that TikTok’s algorithm is designed to trap vulnerable users in cycles of despair for profit and seeks reparations for the families.
“Their strategy is insidious,” Mistre said. “They hook children into depressive content to keep them on the platform, turning them into lucrative re-engagement products.”
Boutron-Marmion noted that TikTok’s Chinese version, Douyin, features much stricter content controls for young users. It includes a “youth mode” mandatory for users under 14 that restricts screen time to 40 minutes a day and offers only approved content.
“It proves they can moderate content when they choose to,” Boutron-Marmion said. “The absence of these safeguards here is telling.”
United Arab Emirates Dirham Exchange Rate
