A Texas judge ruled on Thursday that TikTok violated the state's consumer protection law by misleading users about how the platform filtered content for minors and the effectiveness of its Restricted Mode feature.
Texas sued TikTok in January 2025, accusing the company of marketing its platform as safe for children while failing to provide the protections it promised.
According to the ruling, Texas argued that TikTok told users it would remove content that violated its Community Guidelines.
But the company internally classified some of that material as “hard to find” rather than content that should not be allowed on the platform, meaning it could remain available to users.
Judge Cory Liu agreed that the practice violated Texas consumer protection law.
Liu also ruled that Texas had shown TikTok's Restricted Mode did not work as advertised, allowing minors to encounter content that the company had said would be filtered out.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.
The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the case will now proceed to trial, where penalties and other remedies will be decided. The trial is expected to be scheduled next month, according to Paxton's office.
The ruling comes as TikTok and other social media companies face growing legal pressure over the impact of their platforms on young users.
In August, TikTok agreed to settle three U.S. lawsuits brought by young people who accused social media companies of designing their platforms to be addictive and harming their mental health.
Meta separately agreed in August to pay up to $18 billion to settle U.S. addiction claims.
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