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A Texas judge has ruled that TikTok violated the state’s consumer protection law over claims related to children’s safety on the platform.
Texas sued TikTok in January 2025, accusing the platform of presenting itself as safe for children while failing to provide the protection it had promised.
According to the court’s ruling, Texas argued that TikTok told users it would remove content violating the platform’s Community Guidelines. However, some of that material was internally classified not as content that should be absent from the platform, but as content that was “hard to find.” This allowed it to remain accessible to users.
Judge Corey Liu agreed that the practice violated Texas’ consumer protection law. Liu also said Texas had shown that TikTok’s Restricted Mode did not work as advertised. According to the ruling, the feature failed to prevent minors from encountering content the company had promised to filter.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside business hours.
The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the case would proceed to a hearing to determine fines and other legal measures. Paxton’s office said the hearing is expected to be scheduled next month.
The ruling comes as TikTok and other social media companies face growing legal pressure over the impact of their platforms on young users.
In August, TikTok reached settlements in three US lawsuits brought by young people who accused social media companies of designing their platforms to be addictive and harming users’ mental health. Meta separately agreed to pay up to $18 billion in a US case involving addiction claims.
Social media platforms have faced increasing scrutiny in the United States over their content moderation practices, age-appropriate design and the effectiveness of tools intended to protect minors. Such cases may influence how companies disclose safety features and enforce their stated policies.
