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.
In April last year, the UK imposed a $15.9 million fine for failing to protect users under the age of 13, specifically for “a range of breaches of data protection law, including failure to lawfully use children’s personal data.”
“Our £12.7m fine reflects the serious impact their failures may have had. They did not do enough to check who was using their platform or take sufficient steps to remove underage children from it,” said John Edward, the UK’s information commissioner.
With information from Reuters and AFP
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