Tiktok north carolina lawsuit unsealed employee video and Current and former TikTok employees have expressed internal concerns about the potential harm the app’s popular algorithm could cause to young users’ mental health, according to a recently released video submitted as evidence in a lawsuit against the company in North Carolina.

The reactions contradict the company’s repeated public statements that it believes its platform is safe for minors.

North Carolina’s current attorney general, Josh Stein, along with a group of other state attorneys general, sued TikTok last year for conditional or deceptive business practices. They concluded that TikTok was designed to be “highly unusual for minors” and that the company misled parents and children about the app’s potential safety risks.

On Tuesday, North Carolina Superior Court Judge Adam Conrad ruled that both the complaint and the video — which the attorney general’s office monitored as part of an investigation into TikTok and was submitted as evidence in the lawsuit — could not be kept secret. Conrad also denied TikTok’s request to dismiss the case.

The video, a compilation of clips from internal video conferences, reported that some TikTok employees had raised questions about the app’s safety for young people. It’s unclear exactly when the comments were made.

Unfortunately, some of the things that people find interesting are not always healthy

Nicholas Chng, who worked in risk detection at TikTok before leaving last year, said in the video. “We encourage some of this content to be posted precisely because of the way the platform is designed. And sometimes I worry about it.”

A TikTok employee called the video “misleading” in a statement to CNN.

“The attorney general’s sizzle reel is a shameful attempt to manipulate an open internal discussion about improving the safety of the platform, even though TikTok launched just five years ago,” the employee said. “This manipulation is based on conversations taken out of context with the sole purpose of deceiving the public and making a big deal out of it.”

Elsewhere in the video, Brett Peters, currently TikTok’s global head of creator engagement and reputation, spoke of the company’s “high-level goal” of keeping users on the app longer.

“That’s exactly why we’re all here, to continue to diversify the content ecosystem and make TikTok a place where you’ll find so much variety of content that you’ll never want to leave,” Peters said.

It’s certainly not uncommon for tech security teams to coordinate internally to improve their platforms. However, North Carolina’s current attorney general, Jeff Jackson, said the video supports the state’s allegations that TikTok knew about and covered up security risks.

“These videos prove what we’ve argued in court: social media companies are ensnaring children to maximize their profits, even at the expense of their health,” Jackson said in a statement to CNN.

TikTok’s CEO stated, “Since launching the app, we have built a reputation for trust and safety. More than 70 features and settings have been specifically designed for the safety and well-being of teens and families on TikTok and have been intentionally protected by the Attorney General.”

TikTok has previously called the North Carolina lawsuit “false and misleading.”

The lawsuit also addressed parental controls and parental control features that TikTok has implemented in recent years, including the introduction of default privacy settings and disabling nightly notifications. The company recently recommended a “guided meditation” feature that allegedly helps teens scroll less.

The North Carolina lawsuit seeks unspecified fines and an injunction prohibiting TikTok from engaging in the “likely or deceptive acts and practices” described in the lawsuit.

In some cases, the statements in the unsealed video mirror the allegations in the North Carolina lawsuit.

For example, the lawsuit claims that TikTok “fails to tell young users and parents what its managers and employees know about the harms caused by distracting screen time… because