In 2022, 16-year-old Chase Nasca committed suicide by walking in front of a train near his home on Long Island, New York.
Now, Nasca’s parents are taking legal action against ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, for the role the social media platform played in their son’s death.
According to the New York Post, court documents claim that TikTok used location tracking to suggest “railroad themed suicide videos” to Nasca. The family lived near a commuter train track. The teen was allegedly bombarded with these suicide-themed videos leading up to his death, even when he sought out videos meant to inspire him to get better (via NYP):
The China-owned platform actually went so far as to tailor the morbid videos around the fact that Chase lived close to the Long Island Rail Road — even though the promising high-school soccer player had only started out seeking “uplifting and motivational” videos, according to a filing Feb. 5 opposing TikTok’s bid to get the suit thrown out.
“Some of the videos [TikTok] directed to Chase, who lived a quarter mile from the LIRR tracks, encouraged young people to end their lives by stepping in front of a moving train,” the court documents say. “This was no coincidence.”
[…]
“TikTok used Chase’s geolocating data to send him … railroad themed suicide videos both before and after his death,” the court papers claim. […]
— Read More: townhall.com
