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New York, New York – Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Tuesday that it had referred a complaint against Tiktok To the Ministry of Justice and says that the popular video sharing app can violate laws on child confidentiality.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Tuesday that it had referred a complaint against Tiktok to the Ministry of Justice and said that the popular video sharing app could violate the laws on child confidentiality. © Unsplash/@Solnfeyissa
The complaint, which also names Tiktok’s Chinese parent company Changederives from an investigation that began after a 2019 settlement, FTC said in a statement.
At that time, the US controller accused Tiktok’s predecessor, Musical.ly, for incorrectly collected child users’ personal data.
TikTok agreed to pay $ 5.7 million during the settlement and take steps to follow Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (Coppa), a 1998 law.
FTC Chairman Lina Khan said Tuesday on X The fact that the follow -up survey had “found reason to believe that Tiktok is breaking or being offended” Coppa and other federal laws.
A separate FTC statement said that the public announcement of the referral was atypical, but “we have determined that it is in the public interest.”
Neither Khan nor the FTC statement specified the violations that TikTok and Bythadance are believed to have committed.
Tictok said Tuesday at X That it had worked for more than a year with FTC “to deal with its concern” and was “disappointed” the agency was “pursuing disputes instead of continuing to work with us on a reasonable solution.”
The FTC chairman said that a follow-up study has “found reason to believe that Tiktok is violating or will violate” children’s privacy laws. © Paul J. Richards / AFP
“We strongly agree with FTC’s accusations, many of which refer to past events and practices that are actually incorrect or have been raised,” it said.
“We are proud of and remain deeply involved in the work we have done to protect children, and we will continue to update and improve our product.”
The complaint comes one day after the surgeon General Vivek Murthy required new restrictions on social media to fight a sweeping mental health crisis among young people.
Among the steps that Murthy suggested in his New York Times OP-Ed was especially a warning label for tobacco style “which says that social media is associated with significant mental health injuries for young people.”
TikTok, with approximately 170 million US users, is facing a possible ban in the United States within months as part of the legislation signed by president Joe Biden by the end of April.
