SALT LAKE CITY — A judge has put off a demand by the Utah Attorney General's Office that social media giant TikTok be held in contempt of court for not fully complying with state investigative subpoenas.
In a brief hearing on Thursday, 3rd District Court Judge Mark Kouris instructed lawyers for the state and TikTok to keep negotiating.
"I will expect that both parties will meet and confer on every issue that the attorney general believes is still outstanding," he said.
The state sought a contempt of court finding after another deadline came on Friday for TikTok to hand over documents and data sought by Utah's Division of Consumer Protection. The division has had an investigation under way into the video app over alleged harms to the mental health of youth.
TikTok did provide documents and data, but the Utah Attorney General's Office filed papers with the court suggesting that it was not compliant with the subpoenas. That led to Thursday's hearing about whether TikTok would be found in contempt.
"They were in contempt as of 5:01pm last Friday," Utah Solicitor General Melissa Holyoak told the judge. "We do want to continue that production and have that production. What we’re concerned with is even from their description of what production is coming and what they have produced, the way they have gone about that is deficient."
But TikTok attorneys insist the company has complied and continues to produce documents that the state of Utah is demanding.
"We have provided enormous, enormous amounts of information and expended extreme amounts of time and manpower in order to produce that," TikTok lawyer Jacey Skinner told the judge. "What’s remaining is very small and we think any of the questions that they at least previewed for us are very easily resolved through meet and confer."
TikTok's lawyers have appealed some of the judge's previous rulings to the Utah Supreme Court.
Utah political leaders have gone after TikTok and other social media platforms, accusing them of harming the mental health of youth through addictive algorithms and targeted practices. The state has filed lawsuits against TikTok, Facebook and Instagram and launched public awareness campaigns about social media platforms.
In a previous court hearing, the state suggested it had multiple investigations under way into TikTok.
Judge Kouris offered to schedule another hearing in two weeks if the state felt it wasn't getting what it wanted from TikTok. Despite the judge not finding TikTok in contempt, Holyoak told FOX 13 News outside of court she still believed the state was making progress in its case.
"The important thing is we want the information and I think what’s happening here is we’re moving along," she said.
