TikTok Content Moderator Must Arbitrate Claims Against ByteDance

TikTok Inc. and parent ByteDance Inc. can make a content moderator arbitrate her psychological harm claims against them using an arbitration agreement she signed with the third-party company that directly employed her, a federal judge said.

It’s first up to the court, not an arbitrator, to decide if equitable estoppel allows TikTok and ByteDance to use the worker’s arbitration agreement with IT outsourcing firm Telus International, the US District Court for the Northern District of California said Thursday. The doctrine applies in this case, so the worker—one of two plaintiffs in a proposed class action—must arbitrate her claims, it said. ...