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3:24-cv-01116 · U.S. District Court, Middle District of Pennsylvania
Evidentiary treatment: This summarizes the plaintiff's own allegations as stated in the complaint or docket record cited below. It reflects what was filed, not a court finding, and is not a determination that the allegations are true.
Plaintiff, who operates online retail stores, alleges TikTok barred him from using its “promote” feature to advertise his businesses and asserts that TikTok favors large corporate accounts over small businesses like his by internally regulating its algorithm in their favor. Filed the same day as, and mirroring, his suits against Reddit and OnlyFans (C044, C042), the complaint pleads Sherman Antitrust Act and FTC Act violations along with “refusal to deal” and “monopoly power” theories, and requests pre-complaint discovery under Pennsylvania law.
Sourced via a casemine.com judgment page (direct fetch returned 403; corroborated via search-engine recitation) rather than a direct read of the complaint.
This page separates court/ruling records, party filings, research classifications, secondary sources and public statements. Unknown or unresolved fields remain labelled as such.
Outcome reason: After the court adopted an R&R dismissing the complaint without prejudice and allowed an opportunity to amend, the case was ultimately dismissed with prejudice on Dec. 30, 2024.
Research status: Source-backed
Research notes: The Nov. 5, 2024 R&R found the Sherman Act allegations fell far short of alleging the required agreement/conspiracy and found no private right of action under the FTCA. The Third Circuit appeal (25-1015) was terminated Mar. 21, 2025.
Findings recorded only where they are tied to an order, opinion or report and recommendation.
Record labels distinguish final orders/opinions, reports and recommendations, non-final orders, and tentative/indexed ruling records.
R&R concluded the Sherman Act allegations fell far short of alleging the required agreement or conspiracy and that the FTCA provides no private right of action; it recommended dismissal with an opportunity to amend.
November 5, 2024 ruling source — govinfo.gov ↗Appeals taken from this docket record, with what the research does and does not establish about each.
Taking an appeal is a party’s filing, not a ruling — only an appellate court’s own disposition is a finding, and a disposition recorded here is a docket fact rather than reasoning unless the order itself was read. An appeal continues the action it arises from, so appeals are never counted as additional lawsuits: the case and originating-action counts published elsewhere on this site are unaffected by this section. Where a docket number or a current status is not recorded, that is a stated gap in the research, not a finding that none exists. See Methodology.
Recorded in the case record as terminated 2025-03-21, the same day the two companion appeals from the July 2024 filings (Nos. 25-1014 and 25-1016) were resolved. The district docket records the disposition at entry 15 as a 'CERTIFIED ORDER of USCA in lieu of formal MANDATE as to 12 Notice of Appeal', with no free copy of the order available, so the form of the disposition is source-backed but the basis for the termination is not established. No separate opinion is recorded.
Record source — courtlistener.com ↗Sequence does not by itself prove motive or causation.
Tufano filed federal complaint C043 against TikTok Inc., alleging Sherman Act and FTCA claims.
Source — courtlistener.com ↗After the court adopted an R&R finding the Sherman Act allegations fell far short of alleging the required agreement/conspiracy and that the FTCA provides no private right of action, and allowed an opportunity to amend, the case was ultimately dismissed with prejudice.
Source — courtlistener.com ↗Tufano filed C014 in Lackawanna County against TikTok/TikTok Inc. and Lavely & Singer PC, about 5 months after C043 was dismissed with prejudice.
Source — lpa-homes.org ↗Public statements are displayed separately from court findings. Quotations are transcribed from the video’s own YouTube auto-generated captions and timestamped from the caption cues covering the passage quoted. The Strong / Moderate / Context tier is this project’s research classification of how closely a statement bears on the documented filing patterns — it is not a judicial finding. Any second badge names the filing-restriction factor the statement’s own words describe; it records what the speaker said, not that a court found it.
How quotations are marked: An ellipsis (…) inside a quotation marks words left out between two passages of the same video, which can sit some minutes apart. The omitted wording is not reproduced here, and a clip on the statement supercut plays the whole span from the quotation’s first word to its last — so it includes the omitted material. Quotations without an ellipsis are continuous speech.
know, I'll just I'll just write up the lawsuit today and file it. Uh, I sued Tik Tok in the past in federal court, but they got their judge buddy to throw out the case before it even started.
This is the refiling decision, stated in the first person, the day before the refiled action appears on a docket. Every element is checkable against the case tracker. The prior federal action is C043 — Tufano v. TikTok Inc., M.D. Pa. 3:24-cv-01116, filed 2024-07-08, dismissed with prejudice 2024-12-30 after a report and recommendation found the Sherman Act allegations "fell far short of alleging the required agreement/conspiracy" and no private right of action under the FTCA; the Third Circuit appeal (25-1015) was terminated 2025-03-21, i.e. the appellate remedy was already exhausted 76 days before this video. The new action is C014 (Lackawanna 2025-04277, filed 2025-06-06 — the next day), removed as C053. And the dataset had already reached this conclusion from the pleadings alone: the tracker's refiling analysis for C014 records that it re-pleads C043's TikTok theory verbatim in substance, against the same core defendant, after C043 was dismissed on 2024-12-30 — cross-indexed as a recorded filing-restriction indicator.
Watch at 00:29 — youtube.com ↗And I filed a similar complaint in the federal court a year or two ago, which to no surprise was thrown out by a judge uh against Tik Tok themselves because they were preventing me from using the promote feature.
The plaintiff's own account of the exact repetition the tracker records as VI033. C014's refiling_basis reads: "Prior: C043. Re-pleads C043's TikTok theory verbatim in substance — the August-2023 'promote'-feature bar and TikTok's alleged favouring of large businesses — against the same core defendant, after C043 was dismissed (2024-12-30)." Here he names the same prior action, the same theory ("the promote feature"), and the same outcome ("thrown out by a judge"), and says the complaint he filed the day before is "a similar complaint." C043 (M.D. Pa. 3:24-cv-01116) was filed 2024-07-08 and dismissed with prejudice 2024-12-30.
Watch at 03:29 — youtube.com ↗You know, I filed multiple lawsuits in different courts. These judges don't care. They're all bought and paid for by all of these elite freaks that don't care about you.
The speaker states that he filed multiple lawsuits in different courts over the ban he attributes to the surgeon, and alleges that the judges are bought and paid for.
Why this classification: Self-reports filing more than one action in more than one court over a single underlying grievance, attached to a tracked defendant named in the transcript rather than only in the title. The bias clause characterises courts generally and no judge is named.
Watch at 00:33 — youtube.com ↗Um, and I already have a lawsuit filed against Tik Tok for for deplatforming me and censoring me. And I guess I got to file another one now. I don't know what to do.
Names an action already filed over deplatforming and announces another on the same grievance, prompted by a fresh account ban the same day. The dataset records several earlier actions against the same defendant.
Why this classification: States an existing action against a tracked defendant and, in the same sentence, announces a further action on the same deplatforming grievance. That is repeat filing on one identified dispute, described prospectively.
Watch at 07:44 — youtube.com ↗and it's not just YouTube I being shadowbanned silenced and censored on every social media here's my suspension on Tik Tok I was so shadowbanned I had to start paying to promote my content to get any views whatsoever and they ban me from using the promote tool the only thing I did was promote my products maybe I called a few people out that were copying my products and ideas but
This is, almost clause for clause, the theory later pleaded in C043 (Tufano v. TikTok Inc., M.D. Pa. 3:24-cv-01116), whose claims summary records that "Plaintiff, who operates online retail stores, alleges TikTok barred him from using its 'promote' feature to advertise his businesses." The same promote-feature bar is pleaded again in C014/C053. Spoken 192 days before C043 was filed (2023-12-29 → 2024-07-08, computed as a plain date difference). It describes a platform grievance, not any filing conduct of his own. (Tier: Moderate — No filing-conduct factor)
Watch / source — youtube.com ↗corporate shills want to censor me and sell their own products and copy my ideas and make money off of them pretending that they came up with them themselves it it's completely ridiculous and disgusting what it's like to be a legitimate small business not a fake corporate shill business
C043's claims summary records that he "asserts that TikTok favors large corporate accounts over small businesses like his by internally regulating its algorithm in their favor," pleaded as Sherman Act / FTC Act and "refusal to deal" theories; C014/C053 attribute the ban to "TikTok favoring large businesses over small ones like his." This passage is that framing stated on camera 192 days before the earliest of those filings. It alleges platform bias, not judicial or forum bias, so Judicial or forum bias alleged does not apply. (Tier: Moderate — No filing-conduct factor)
Watch at 00:41 — youtube.com ↗yeah I had like a really old phone for a while and then I got a newer iPhone because it was important for my business to like film the Tik toks and shorts and stuff only for me to get banned on Tik Tok so go figure
A contemporaneous, first-person statement of the TikTok account-ban grievance that a whole cluster of tracked actions later pleads — C043 (Tufano v. TikTok Inc., M.D. Pa. 3:24-cv-01116, filed 2024-07-08), C014/C053 (Tufano v. TikTok), and, as a joined allegation, C027, C028, C029, C034/C065, C036/C068 and C084. He states the ban as a fact already accomplished and ties it directly to business harm ("it was important for my business"), which is the damages theory those complaints run on. Published 190 days before C043 was filed (2023-12-31 → 2024-07-08, computed as a plain date difference). No case, court, docket or filing is named, and no filing conduct is described. (Tier: Moderate — No filing-conduct factor)
Watch at 11:53 — youtube.com ↗I got taken off of Tik Tock for putting onions in my underwear as a joke I don't know if you guys remember that that was like my first YouTube short ever actually and these girls post stuff like these girls these girls can be basically naked doing whatever they want but the second I make a joke not even
A datable, first-person account of a TikTok content removal and of what he considers its double standard, spoken 99 days before C043 (Tufano v. TikTok Inc., M.D. Pa. 3:24-cv-01116, filed 2024-07-08, part of the TikTok / ByteDance litigation). But it is not the grievance C043 pleads, and the difference matters. C043's recorded claims summary says he "alleges TikTok barred him from using its 'promote' feature to advertise his businesses" and pleads Sherman Act and FTC Act theories about algorithmic favouritism toward large accounts — an advertising-access claim, not a content-removal claim. Nor is it the later theory: C014/C053 (2025) concern a takedown he attributes to a law firm acting for the Taban defendants (Lavely & Singer PC), which this research records him describing as "the lawyer that got my Tik Tok taken down". So this video documents a third, earlier TikTok grievance that no tracked complaint pleads — recorded so the three TikTok grievances are not fused into one.
Watch at 04:51 — youtube.com ↗I filed about 10 lawsuits in the past two weeks I I I mean I won't get too much into that one was you know Reddit permanently banned me I can't advertise on Reddit so I'm suing them Tik Tok Banned Me from advertising I'm suing Tik Tok
This is the one checkable count in the video and it does not check out. The case tracker records exactly one action filed in the fourteen days before publication — C045, 2024-07-26 — and five in the preceding twenty-two days (C041, C042, C043, C044 all 2024-07-08, plus C045). "About 10 lawsuits in the past two weeks" is therefore unsupported by the tracked docket by roughly an order of magnitude. Three readings are possible and none is adopted here: (a) filings in courts the tracker does not cover (state small-claims, county civil) that were never captured; (b) "filed" used loosely for lawsuits written rather than docketed, which his own phrasing earlier in the video ("writing up lawsuits") supports; (c) plain overstatement. The settling check would be a docket sweep of Lackawanna County and any small-claims/magisterial court for 2024-07-16 → 2024-07-30. Recorded because earlier research on this channel found a different self-reported count ("at least 10 active legal cases") that was accurate to within one — so the pattern is not "he always inflates," and the divergence between the two counts is itself the finding.
Watch at 06:21 — youtube.com ↗So, I made this new business account on Tik Tok to try to push sales and promote my business so that I can afford to pay for these eye surgeries. And right after the first promotion, Tik Tok permanently banned me until May of 2035.
This is the grievance that C014 (Lackawanna 2025-04277, Tufano v. TikTok, filed 2025-06-06) pleads, stated 21 days before that case was filed. The dataset codes C014 as a refiling of C043 (M.D. Pa. 3:24-cv-01116, filed 2024-07-08, dismissed with prejudice 2024-12-30) with the recorded basis: "Re-pleads C043's TikTok theory verbatim in substance — the August-2023 'promote'-feature bar and TikTok's alleged favouring of large businesses." Both halves of that theory are here: a promote-feature bar, and (in the following minute) the allegation that TikTok only elevates fake small businesses. It also ties the two disputes together financially — the stated purpose of the account is "so that I can afford to pay for these eye surgeries," which is the eye-surgery medical dispute funding the TikTok platform dispute. But the recital conflicts with the pleaded one: this describes a new account banned right after its first promotion, with a ban expiring May 2035, which reads as a 2025 ban event, not the August-2023 bar the refiling basis names. The conflict is recorded, not resolved. Party statement, no source offered.
Watch / source — youtube.com ↗And when people like myself actually try to do this, they just get shut down. And what happens if you actually try to do something? What happens if you try to sue Tik Tok in the court system for this unfair behavior? The judge dismisses the case. The judge will not let the case go through because the court system is owned by these same people and they never lose.
He describes suing TikTok and losing, in the present-general tense, at a point in the chronology where the dataset records exactly one such outcome: C043, dismissed with prejudice on 2024-12-30 after the court adopted an R&R finding the Sherman Act allegations fell far short of alleging the required agreement and that the FTCA provides no private right of action. He then files C014 against TikTok again 21 days after this video. So the statement sits precisely between an adverse decision and a repeat filing on the same dispute — but the words themselves announce no filing, which is why the tier is Moderate rather than Strong. What the quote supplies is the stated reason the refiling is not futile in his view: not that the ruling was wrong on the law, but that the forum is owned by the opponent. Party statement, no source offered.
Watch at 02:04 — youtube.com ↗I was working really hard on on the social media pages. I made like I made like all new I made like a new Tik Tok page just for the business. I I took out a small loan to try to promote it to push some sales and they just banned me and censored me.
A dated statement of the TikTok grievance — a business account banned after he borrowed money to use the paid-promotion feature — with no filing announced. This is the §W2.2 shape: grievance on camera, silence about litigation, case follows.
Watch at 20:25 — youtube.com ↗So I guess uh this is just cherry on top of the Sunday because Tik Tok did ban me from advertising before. But I guess now I have another thing to add to my lawsuit.
Two distinct things in one sentence. First, he identifies a prior TikTok grievance of the same kind — "Tik Tok did ban me from advertising before" — which is the subject of C043 (Tufano v. TikTok Inc., M.D. Pa. 3:24-cv-01116, filed 2024-07-08, dismissed 2024-12-30, Third Circuit appeal 25-1015 terminated 2025-03-21). Second, he says the new ban gives him "another thing to add to my lawsuit." The recorded litigation timeline notes C014 as filed 2025-06-06, "about 5 months after C043 was dismissed with prejudice." Why this is Moderate and not Strong, written out so the call is auditable: the quote does identify a tracked dispute and does describe filing conduct of a repeat kind, but what it literally announces is an addition to an unspecified existing lawsuit, not a new complaint — and it names no case, court or docket number. Strong requires both halves cleanly; this has one clean half and one that has to be read through the docket. A reading that takes "my lawsuit" to be C014, filed the next day, could reasonably support a higher tier; the Moderate classification rests on the quote itself naming no case.
Watch at 00:49 — youtube.com ↗might also file a federal lawsuit, but uh the federal judges are really really corrupt. They just dismiss your complaint uh before it's like even filed uh if you're not in the club.
A prospective federal action stated as an option, with a stated reason for preferring state court. What actually happened inverts it: the case did reach federal court 21 days later — but by removal, on the defendants' motion, not on his (the case tracker records it "Removed to the Middle District of Pennsylvania on June 27, 2025," tracked as C053). And the federal history he alludes to is real: C043 (M.D. Pa. 3:24-cv-01116) was dismissed with prejudice on 2024-12-30 after a Report and Recommendation found the Sherman Act allegations "fell far short of alleging the required agreement/conspiracy," and the Third Circuit appeal (25-1015) was terminated 2025-03-21. Neither factor here is one of the three core filing-restriction factors, so under the published rubric the statement cannot classify as Strong however firmly the dispute is identified.
Watch at 00:18 — youtube.com ↗My first account, which I built up for years and spent thousands and thousands of dollars to promote my health and nutrition business, was the first account that was banned about one month ago. Because of this, I did file a lawsuit against Tik Tok, but who knows what the corrupt judges are going to do.
A filing confirmed in the past tense, plus an internal date marker that independently corroborates it. "banned about one month ago" from a 2025-07-07 upload puts the first ban in early June 2025 — and C014 (Tufano v. TikTok, Lackawanna 2025-04277) was filed 2025-06-06, then removed and continued federally as C053 (M.D. Pa. 3:25-cv-01175) on 2025-06-27, ten days before this video. So "I did file a lawsuit against TikTok" is docket-confirmed in both forums, and the marker fixes the cause he gives for it. The second half — "who knows what the corrupt judges are going to do" — is a general allegation about the judiciary, not about any identified judge; it is his characterisation and no court finding is implied. Held at Moderate: neither factor is core.
Watch at 00:24 — youtube.com ↗You probably have no social media influences. Even if you did like me, this guy paid to get me banned on TikTok. They control social media, too. And they control all the review websites.
Restates in one sentence the factual core of two tracked threads, a TikTok ban he attributes to a paying third party and control of the review websites. Both tracked TikTok actions predate the video and were already closed or removed, so it reports an existing grievance rather than announcing one.
Why this classification: Moderate because the ban is stated first-hand and matches the subject matter of the tracked TikTok actions, while no filing conduct is described. The person he blames is referred to only as this guy: no doctor, law firm or platform is named here, and the attributed version of the same allegation recorded elsewhere on this channel is deliberately not imported into this statement.
Watch at 00:30 — youtube.com ↗Each video has its own research page with its verified publish date, timestamped statements and case links. A researched link between a video and a docket record is not a finding of causation in either direction.
Frank Tufano Litigation Research. "Tufano v. TikTok Inc. (3:24-cv-01116)". Research last verified September 23, 2026. https://suedbyfranktufano.com/cases/3-24-cv-01116-tufano-v-tiktok-inc/