The families of two young girls who accidentally hanged themselves last year while trying a viral challenge on TikTok are suing the popular social media platform.

Eight-year-old Lalani Erika Renee Walton of Temple, Texas and nine-year-old Arriani Jaileen Arroyo of Milwaukee, Wisconsin both died in 2021 while allegedly attempting a viral challenge called the “Blackout Challenge.” The challenge involves choking yourself until you pass out in order to achieve a euphoric feeling upon waking up.

Arriani’s father found his daughter hanging inside their home in February 2021 after her younger brother reported she wasn’t moving.

Lalani’s stepmother found her hanging from her bed with a rope around her neck in July 2021. 

The police, who took Lalani’s phone and tablet, later told her stepmother that the girl had been watching blackout challenge videos “on repeat,” the suit says.

The lawsuit claims TikTok’s “dangerous” algorithms are to blame for the children’s death, saying the algorithm continually made Blackout Challenge videos appear on the girls’ ‘for you’ pages where users see random videos they might like based on what they’ve previously watched. 

“TikTok unquestionably knew that the deadly Blackout Challenge was spreading through their app and that their algorithm was specifically feeding the Blackout Challenge to children, including those who have died,” the complaint reads.

The lawsuit also claims that TikTok not only knows many of its users are under 13-years-old but it markets to people under 13, despite the app’s terms of agreement that state the app is for people age 13 and older. 

“TikTok has specifically curated and determined that these Blackout Challenge videos — videos featuring users who purposefully strangulate themselves until losing consciousness — are appropriate and fitting for small children,” the lawsuit states. 

“TikTok needs to be held accountable for pushing deadly content to these two young girls,” said Matthew P Bergman, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC). “TikTok has invested billions of dollars to intentionally design products that push dangerous content that it knows is dangerous and can result in the deaths of its users.”

In December 2021, another young girl died while allegedly attempting the Blackout Challenge. Tawainna Anderson found her 10-year-old daughter Nylah Anderson unconscious and hanging in her bedroom closet by her neck from a purse strap. Nylah was rushed to the hospital where she was in the intensive care unit for several days before she died. 

Nylah’s mother is also suing TikTok, saying the app’s algorithm is responsible for her daughter’s death. The suit also lists other fatalities that resulted from the challenge, which include a 10-year-old girl in Italy on Jan. 21, 2021; 12-year-old Joshua Haileyesus on March 22, 2021; a 14-year-old boy in Australia on June 14, 2021; and a 12-year-old boy from Oklahoma in July 2021. All of these children allegedly learned about the challenge on their “For You Page.”

TikTok released the following statement in December when Nylah’s death first came to light. 

“This disturbing ‘challenge,’ which people seem to learn about from sources other than TikTok, long predates our platform and has never been a TikTok trend. We remain vigilant in our commitment to user safety and would immediately remove related content if found. Our deepest sympathies go out to the family for their tragic loss.”

The Walton and Arroyo families are seeking an unspecified amount in damages and have requested a jury trial to take place in California.

MOSS POINT, Miss. – A 16-year-old from Pascagoula, Mississippi is being praised as a hero for saving the lives of three girls and a police officer after the girl’s car drove off the Interstate’s boat launch and plunged into a river. 

Corion Evans, 16, told local TV station WLOX that he saw the car with three teenage girls inside enter the river after it accidentally drove off the end of a boat launch. Authorities said the vehicle traveled about 20 feet away from shore before sinking.

“They drove straight under the water. Like, only a little bit of the car was still above the water,” he told the station.

Evans and one of his friends, Karon Bradley, jumped into the water to rescue the girls and help get the girls to the roof of the car. Evans, who says he has been swimming since he was 3-years-old, also helped a Moss Point Police Officer who had responded to the scene and swam out to help.  

“I turned around. I see the police officer. He’s drowning. He’s going underwater, drowning, saying, ‘Help!’” Evans said. “So, I went over there. I went and I grabbed the police officer and I’m like swimming him back.”

The officer and the three girls were taken to the hospital for treatment and are now recovering.

One of the victims named Cora Watson showed her appreciation in a post on Facebook saying he, “saved my life right before my last breath.”

“They was out there throwing up because a lot of water had got inside all of them,” Evans said. “25 yards out, so it was a lot of swimming. My legs were so tired after. Anything could’ve been in that water, though. But I wasn’t thinking about it.”

Chief Brandon Ashley released this statement to WLOX:

“The police department and I commend Mr. Evans’s bravery and selflessness he displayed by risking his own safety to help people in danger. If Mr. Evans had not assisted, it could have possibly turned out tragically instead of all occupants rescued safely.”

LAS VEGAS, Nevada – The Henderson and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police will pay a young Black man $90,000 after he was arrested on a felony warrant for a white man who was twice his age. 

On January 8, 2020, 25-year-old Shane Lee Brown was pulled over for not having his headlights on. Brown told officers he had lost his wallet and did not have his identification but provided his name, Social Security number and Social Security card.

When officers performed a records check for “Shane Brown,” a felony warrant for a different Shane Brown appeared. Police mistook the warrant that was for a 49-year-old white man named Shane Neal Brown as being connected to Shane Lee Brown and arrested him. 

Brown would spend two days in the Henderson jail before being taken to the Clark County Detention Center, where he spent 4 more days before a public defender told the judge they had the wrong man in custody.

“Your honor, we have a major issue in this case,” she said in a video first obtained by the I-Team. “The Shane Brown who is the defendant in our case has a separate ID number and he is a 49-year-old white male.”

Brown’s attorney, E. Brent Bryson, said the police did not do their job efficiently to confirm his client’s identity. 

“It’s their duty to know, and if they hear it a hundred times, so be it. It doesn’t matter if they hear it all the time. They need to do their investigation, their due diligence and act appropriately,” Bryson said to CNN.

Brown was awarded a combined settlement of $90,000, only $10,000 short of the state’s maximum for negligence by a governmental entity.

The Henderson Police Department will pay Brown $25,000, while the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department will pay $65,000.

Brown says he has been left traumatized from the experience and is afraid to drive. 

“I almost never drive any more unless it is absolutely necessary,” Brown told FOX5.

“It is just difficult for him to put what happened to him aside and hopefully with time he will be able to do so,” Bryson contended.