Social media platform TikTok has lost its bid to dismiss New Hampshire’s lawsuit alleging that it designed addictive features that harm teens’ mental health.

New Hampshire Superior Court Justice John Kissinger allowed the company to avoid part of the state’s lawsuit that alleged that it misrepresented its geographic origin. However, Kissinger rejected on July 11 several other arguments, including TikTok’s claim that the First Amendment shielded it from some of the state’s claims. The judge also rejected the idea that TikTok enjoyed immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which generally protects internet companies in publishing third-party content.

“The State’s claims are based on the App’s alleged defective and dangerous features, not the information contained therein,” Kissinger said. “Accordingly, the State’s product liability claim is based on the harm caused by the product: TikTok itself.”

In a statement on July 11, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella praised Kissinger’s decision as “an important step toward holding TikTok accountable for unlawful practices that put children at risk.”

TikTok did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment by publication time.

Overall, the state has 1.2 million registered TikTok accounts with 620,404 content creators. Of the 1.2 million, more than 92,000 accounts belong to children between 13 and 17 years old, according to Kissinger’s order. The state’s lawsuit alleged that TikTok was negligent and violated the state’s consumer protection law.

New Hampshire’s lawsuit was one of many to hit the social media giant, which lost a Supreme Court case earlier this year. Its future remains uncertain as Congress’s divest-or-ban law looms over its U.S. business because of its ties to the Chinese Communist Party. President Donald Trump has attempted to salvage the video platform’s U.S. operation by delaying enforcement of that law and working to find a U.S. buyer.

In his 49-page opinion, Kissinger said he would assume the truth of facts alleged by New Hampshire for the purposes of deciding whether to dismiss its various counts against TikTok.

The state, he said, had an interest in the mental health of its residents and pointed to the state’s claims about that issue. In its lawsuit, New Hampshire stated that “at the same time TikTok launched and grew in popularity within the U.S., the mental health of New Hampshire’s children rapidly worsened.”

For example, it pointed to New Hampshire Department of Education data showing that almost half of New Hampshire’s high school students reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless in 2021. That represented a 57.8 percent increase from 2017, the state said. There was a similar jump in the number of high school students who reported seriously considering suicide, according to the complaint.

Dozens of states brought lawsuits against TikTok with claims that the company uses manipulative features designed to keep minors engaged compulsively, despite the dangers of excessive use.

Amid the legal complaints, a TikTok spokesperson told The Epoch Times in October 2024 that the company “strongly” disagrees with the claims by the attorneys general, many of which it believes to be “inaccurate and misleading.”

“We’re proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we’ve done to protect teens and we will continue to update and improve our product,” TikTok spokesperson Michael Hughes said in an email. “We provide robust safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users, and have voluntarily launched safety features such as default screentime limits, family pairing, and privacy by default for minors under 16.”

Chase Smith contributed to this report.