The Justice Department sued TikTok on Friday, accusing the company of violating children’s online privacy law and running afoul of a settlement it had reached with another federal agency.
Other social media companies have also come under fire for how they’ve handled children’s data. (Photo: Reuters)
The Justice Department sued TikTok on Friday, accusing the company of violating children’s online privacy law and running afoul of a settlement it had reached with another federal agency. The complaint, filed together with the Federal Trade Commission in a California federal court, comes as the US and the prominent social media company are embroiled in yet another legal battle that will determine if or how TikTok will continue to operate in the country. Click here to connect with us on WhatsApp The latest lawsuit focuses on allegations that TikTok, a trend-setting platform popular among young users, and its China-based parent company ByteDance violated a federal law that requires kid-oriented apps and websites to get parental consent before collecting personal information of children under 13. It also says the companies failed to honour requests from parents who wanted their children’s accounts deleted, and chose not to delete accounts even when the firms knew they belonged to kids under 13.
This action is necessary to prevent the defendants, who are repeat offenders and operate on a massive scale, from collecting and using young children’s private information without any parental consent or control, Brian M Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said in a statement.
TikTok said it disagreed with the allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed.
We offer age-appropriate experiences with stringent safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users and have voluntarily launched features such as default screentime limits, Family Pairing, and additional privacy protections for minors, the company said in a statement.
