2023-05-19 19:13:58
Korean automaker Hyundai is to pay up to $200 million in compensation to owners of its vehicles in the United States following a series of thefts and car crashes caused by a viral challenge on TikTok.
• Read also: New York: distribution of AirTag to fight once morest vehicle theft
• Read also: Stealing a vehicle using a USB wire, this disturbing TikTok challenge
To end class action lawsuits, the firm has reached an agreement to compensate around 9 million owners of Hyundai and Kia cars released between 2011 and 2022, such as the Elantra, Santa Fe and Tucson models, according to a press release published THURSDAY.
The TikTok challenge dubbed “Kia Challenge” was born on the popular platform in 2022, following thieves known under the pseudonym “Kia Boyz” showed in video how to force start certain vehicles using a USB cable.
The number of thefts exploded in stride, and the phenomenon “resulted in at least 14 accidents and 8 deaths”, according to the American Highway Safety Agency (NHTSA).
In February, the authority announced the deployment by Hyundai-Kia of free anti-theft software on millions of cars without an immobilizer system.
According to the agreement unveiled Thursday, the manufacturer will reimburse consumers whose vehicle has been stolen or damaged and whose costs have not been covered by their insurance, including deductibles and related premium increases.
TikTok, which is owned by Chinese group ByteDance, is in a difficult position in the United States as many lawmakers on both the right and left want to ban the app from the country.
They accuse it of serving as a Trojan horse in Beijing, to spy on and manipulate users, which the company has always denied.
The social network is also regularly criticized for viral challenges where users promote dangerous or illegal actions.
The US state of Montana has just enacted a law that bans TikTok from January 1, 2024. It mentions national security, but also the fact that the platform does not fight, according to lawmakers, once morest this type of content, from ” game of the scarf” (when minors try to asphyxiate themselves) to the challenges linked to the coronavirus or to vehicles.
1684528615
#Kia #Challenge #Hyundai #compensate #motorists #victims #TikTok #challenge
