The United States in a lawsuit on Friday accused TikTok of violating children’s privacy by collecting data about them without their parents’ permission when they use the app.
The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have joined forces in a civil lawsuit saying the popular video clip sharing app violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
“TikTok knowingly and repeatedly violated children’s privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children across the country,” FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan said in a statement.
COPPA prohibits websites from collecting personal information about children under 13 without parental permission.
The lawsuit alleges that since 2019, TikTok has allowed children to use the app, collecting and using personal data from young users without informing their parents.
Even accounts created in “Kids Mode” intended for users under 13 collected email addresses and other personal information, the lawsuit alleges.
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TikTok and its parent company ByteDance frequently “failed” to honor parents’ requests to remove their children’s accounts and data and had ineffective policies to identify and delete accounts created by children, Justice Department officials told the announcement.
“This action is necessary to prevent the defendants, who are repeat offenders and operate on a massive scale, from collecting and using the private information of young children without any parental consent or control,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton. in the announcement.
Five years ago, the US filed a COPPA-focused lawsuit against an app called Musical.ly, which China-based ByteDance had bought and merged into TikTok.
That case resulted in TikTok having to take steps to comply with the Children’s Privacy Act, according to Justice Department officials.
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TikTok’s collection of user data makes it a national security threat, the US Justice Department said a week ago in response to a legal bid by ByteDance to force the sale of the app.
TikTok’s lawsuit in federal court in Washington argues that a law, which would force the app to be sold next year or face a US ban, violates First Amendment free speech rights.
The U.S. response counters that the law addresses national security concerns, not speech, and that TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance is unable to assert First Amendment rights in the United States.
“Given TikTok’s broad reach within the United States, China’s ability to use TikTok’s features to achieve its primary goal of undermining American interests poses a national security threat of enormous depth and scale,” the ministry wrote. Justice in his testimony.
The legal response to TikTok’s appeals court lawsuit clarifies concerns that ByteDance could and would comply with Chinese government demands for data about US users or bow to pressure to censor or promote content on the platform, senior officials said. of the Ministry of Justice in a briefing. .
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TikTok responded in a filing, saying “the Constitution is on our side.”
“Banning TikTok would silence the voices of 170 million Americans in violation of the First Amendment,” the company said in a statement on social media platform X, referring to the app’s users in the United States.
“As we have said before, the government has never produced any evidence for its claims, even after Congress passed this unconstitutional law.”
A bill signed by President Joe Biden earlier this year gave TikTok until mid-January 2025 to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a US ban.
ByteDance has said it has no plans to sell TikTok, leaving the lawsuit, which will likely go to the US Supreme Court, as its only option to avoid the ban.
“There is no question: the law will force the shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025,” the lawsuit said, “silencing (those) who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere.”
Source: AFP