This claim is true. The CBS source does mention that videos of TikTok employees discussing the addictive features of TikTok and the implications of those features were used as evidence by the North Carolina Department of Justice in a 2024 lawsuit when the “state's former attorney general filed against TikTok, alleging the company misled the public about the safety of the social media platform” (Cunningham, 2025). The CBS article also mentions that TikTok tried to keep the video out of the public eye because “[The] clips clearly show that social media companies know they're designing their apps to hook our children even at the expense of their health” (Cunningham, 2025). CNN’s article, “‘You never want to leave’ TikTok employees raise concerns about the app’s impact on teens in newly unsealed video,” also confirms that these videos were used in court. In one of the videos, Nicholas Chng, who worked on risk detection at TikTok before he left last year, said, “Unfortunately, some of the stuff that people find interesting is not always the most healthy,” said in the video. “We do, in a way, encourage some of this content being put up just because of the way the platform is designed. And sometimes I worry about that” (Duffy, 2025). The article continues to mention other parts of the leaked videos, for example, an employee talked about the impact on teenagers' mental health from seeing an influx of diet and workout videos and believes, “the more that a user looks up things about, like fitness or like diet, it turns into losing weight, and then, soon enough, the entire feed of this user is like soft disordered eating behavior that is being discussed by their peers with no opportunity to remove themselves from that” (Duffy, 2025).
Sources:
CBS News Article: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tiktok-employees-apps-mental-health-court-video-north-carolina-lawsuit/
CNN Article: https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/20/tech/tiktok-north-carolina-lawsuit-unsealed-employee-video
