Highlights:

• The “Blackout Challenge” has reappeared on TikTok, and despite the passage of 16 years, it is still even more hazardous than it was when it first appeared.
• According to federal legislation, TikTok is not responsible for the death of the youngster who participated in the Blackout Challenge.
• In federal courts in Oakland and Los Angeles, more wrongful cases against TikTok regarding the subject are still underway.

TikTok is not unaccustomed to harmful viral phenomena.

Tiktok has seen everything there is to experience, from “dry-scooping” to leaping on towering piles of milk crates to extracting your own IUD to consuming large quantities of frozen honey and corn syrup; it has seen it all.

The “blackout challenge” is the most recent in a line of trends that have the potential to put people in danger and potentially result in their deaths.

At the very least, the blackout challenge has been present since 2008, but it was not until 2021 that it began to circulate on TikTok once again. When it originally started, the practise was related to more than 80 fatalities, and specialists have urged younger users not to attempt it because of this connection.

TikTok’s ‘blackout’ challenge linked to deaths of 20 children in 18 months – report https://t.co/UxHaNacorW

— The Independent (@Independent) December 1, 2022

And parents are having a hard time keeping up with all the difficulties that find their way into the devices of their children’s devices. TikTok has become a resource that many people, like Arriani Arroyo’s family, are using to find answers to their questions.

After Arriani’s body was discovered in February of 2021, it was discovered that she had taken part in the blackout challenge. Her parents are now suing TikTok in the intention of keeping other children safe and preventing another tragedy from occurring.

After the matter was transferred to a courtroom, however, things took a dramatic turn.

A court found that TikTok is not responsible for the death of a little girl who was 9 years old and who had viewed a video on the app known as the “Blackout Challenge” that pushed individuals to strangle themselves.

A federal statute, according to US District Judge Paul Diamond in Philadelphia, exempts the video-sharing platform from accountability in the case of the death of Nylah Anderson. This is the case even if the app that the corporation makes suggested the movie to Ms. Anderson.

The Blackout Challenge asks participants to record themselves choking to the point where they feel like they are about to pass out. Numerous children’s fatalities have been attributed to variations of the challenge that have been broadcast on a variety of websites and social media platforms. 

In federal courts in Oakland and Los Angeles, more wrongful death cases against TikTok on the issue are still underway.

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In a judgement that was released on Tuesday and consisted of eight pages, Diamond said that even if the application had suggested the video to the child, TikTok could not be sued. Under Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which he penned, an individual is exempt from legal responsibility if they engage in the action of recommending a movie to another user.

He went on to say that Congress, and not the courts, is the appropriate body to deliberate on the appropriateness of granting such immunity.

In an attempt to protect online content providers from being suffocated by piles of lawsuits based on the material that users upload on their platforms, Congress inserted Section 230 to the statute that was passed in 1996.

According to a statement made by the family’s attorney, the Andersons do not agree with the judge’s reading of Section 230.