French Deputy Files Criminal Complaint Against TikTok Over Harm to Minors
Arthur Delaporte, president of France's parliamentary commission on TikTok, filed a criminal complaint against TikTok on 11 September 2025, alleging the platform deliberately endangered users' health and lives through algorithmic content distribution, insufficient moderation, and promotion of harmful content. The complaint is reportedly based on findings that TikTok's algorithm particularly harms minors' mental health and that company leadership made false statements about their knowledge of these practices.
What happened
Arthur Delaporte, president of France's parliamentary commission on TikTok, filed a criminal complaint with the Paris prosecutor on 11 September 2025 alleging that TikTok deliberately endangered the health and lives of its users.
In the complaint, Delaporte cited TikTok's algorithmically-driven content distribution mechanisms, insufficient content moderation, and active promotion of harmful content including harassment, as contributing to danger to users' dignity and wellbeing. Delaporte alleged the platform's leadership made false statements when they claimed to have no knowledge of these practices.
Reported impact
The parliamentary commission concluded that TikTok's algorithm creates a 'piège algorithmique' (algorithmic trap) that can affect the mental health of young users, with the application being particularly popular among minors.
Index analysis
Delaporte identified deficient content moderation across volume, response time, and effectiveness, and described the platform's failure to respond to attacks on users' dignity.
Governance controls
The parliamentary commission recommended banning social media access for children under 15 to counteract the platform's algorithmic harms.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.