Washington. The US Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Federal Trade Commission on Friday filed a lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, for failing to protect children’s privacy on the social media app.
The government said TikTok violated a law that prohibits collecting, using or disclosing personal information from children under 13 without parental consent.
According to the DoJ, TikTok knowingly allowed children to create accounts and then create and share short videos and messages with adults and others on the platform. TikTok collected personal information from these children without obtaining consent from their parents.
The lawsuit says it aims to put an end to “TikTok’s large-scale unlawful invasions of children’s privacy.”
In 2020, Reuters first reported that the FTC and DoJ were investigating allegations that the popular social media app was failing to comply with a 2019 agreement aimed at protecting children’s privacy.
The Chinese-owned short-video platform has around 170 million US users, and is currently fighting a new law that would force ByteDance to divest TikTok’s US assets by January 19 or face a ban.
Last year, the company faced fines from the European Union and the United Kingdom for its handling of children’s data.
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– 2024-08-11 02:29:15
