Janice R. Andrews
The well-known social media site TikTok is being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) for allegedly breaking agreements with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and breaking kid privacy laws. The action is the result of an investigation conducted earlier this year by the FTC, which forwarded its findings to the DoJ.
Context and Accusations
The primary aim of the FTC’s inquiry was to determine if TikTok had broken the conditions of a prior privacy settlement with Musical.ly, an app that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, had purchased before to the app’s launch. TikTok was found to have “flagrantly” breached the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the 2019 settlement, according to the investigation’s findings.
The Department of Justice claims that TikTok improperly gathered personal data on minors and disregarded demands to remove it. TikTok allegedly let kids make accounts, see and distribute content, and communicate with adults from 2019 till the present. The Department of Justice claims that TikTok took and kept a wide range of personal data from these kids without informing or getting their parents’ permission.
These practices extended to accounts made in “Kids Mode,” a TikTok variant meant for users under the age of thirteen. According to the DoJ, TikTok improperly gathered and kept children’s email addresses and other personal data. TikTok regularly disregarded parents’ requests to have their children’s accounts deleted when they were found. The Department of Justice (DoJ) also deemed TikTok’s internal protocols and procedures for locating and removing child-created accounts inadequate and ineffective.
TikTok’s Reaction
TikTok refuted the accusations in a statement, claiming that many of the problems the DoJ brought out were connected to earlier procedures that have since been changed. The corporation stated, “We disagree with these allegations, many of which are based on past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed.” TikTok highlighted features including age-appropriate experiences, strict controls, proactive removal of suspected underage users, default screentime limitations, Family Pairing, and extra privacy protections for kids in order to showcase its efforts to protect youngsters.
Repercussions and Next Steps
The action comes at a particularly difficult moment for TikTok, as the company is set to confront the Department of Justice in federal court next month about another regulation that would require ByteDance to sell the app or risk being banned in the US.
The verdict in this case may have a big impact on how TikTok and other social media companies manage user data, particularly that of children. To safeguard children online, privacy activists have long demanded that COPPA and other privacy rules be enforced more strictly.
It will be critical for TikTok to show that it is committed to upholding legal standards and safeguarding user privacy as the lawsuit moves further. Future cases involving kid privacy violations on social media platforms may be governed by the company’s reaction to the complaints and the court’s ruling.
