The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit in federal court on Friday, accusing TikTok and its Chinese parent company of illegally collecting children's data.
Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Alleged TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, violated a 2019 settlement with the FTC by continuing to collect data on millions of children under the age of 13 without parental permission and by failing to comply with parental requests to delete that data. Litigation The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The federal government alleges that TikTok violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
“According to the complaint, from 2019 to the present, TikTok knowingly allowed children to create regular TikTok accounts and create, view, and share short videos and messages with adults and others on the regular TikTok platform. Defendants collected and retained a range of personal information from these children without notifying or obtaining parental consent,” the Justice Department said in the lawsuit. “For accounts created in 'Kids Mode' (a simplified version of TikTok aimed at children under the age of 13), Defendants unlawfully collected and retained the children's email addresses and other personal information. Further, when parents discovered their children's accounts and requested that Defendants delete the accounts and the information contained therein, Defendants frequently did not respect their requests.” (Related: Billionaire Republican megadonor's company helped lay the groundwork for TikTok's rise, report reveals)
Department of Justice TikTok Complaint by Nick Pope On Scribd
TikTok, meanwhile, has disputed the Justice Department's charges, with spokesperson Alex Haurek saying: POLITICO Many of the government's allegations “related to past events or practices” that were inaccurate or unaddressed. According to the Department of Justice, the federal government sued TikTok's predecessor, Musical.ly, in 2019 for violating COPPA, and TikTok has since received court orders requiring it to take specific steps to comply with COPPA.
“We are proud of our efforts to protect children and will continue to update and improve our platform,” Haurek told Politico in an email.
In April, the U.S. Congress passed a bill that would force the Chinese company ByteDance to either sell TikTok or have it banned in the U.S., and the company is still fighting the legal battle. TikTok claims it is not controlled by or subservient to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but former senior ByteDance employees have said that CCP members within the company have “superuser” credentials and “backdoor channels” to access U.S. users' data, and the app often promotes content that aligns with the Chinese Communist Party's policies to users. according to According to a recent study by the Network Contagion Laboratory and Rutgers University.
Additionally, after the House of Representatives passed the forced sale bill, Chinese embassy officials reportedly directly lobbied Congress against the bill.
The Justice Department also alleged on July 27 that the app collects American users' opinions on political issues such as abortion and gun control. In the complaint, the federal government argued that the app poses a “potential threat to the national security of the United States.”
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but when asked for comment, the Justice Department directed the Daily Caller News Foundation to a company press release.
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