TapTechNews August 3rd news, according to Bloomberg, on Friday local time, the US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance, accusing it of failing to protect children's privacy on the social media platform. The US government said TikTok violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires services for children to obtain parental consent before collecting personal information of users under the age of 13.
This lawsuit is supported by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which said the move aims to end the behavior of TikTok illegally and massively infringing children's privacy.
The US Department of Justice claims that TikTok allows millions of children under the age of 13 to create accounts and collect data without the knowledge or consent of their parents, and this is still the case even after reaching a settlement agreement with the FTC in 2019 regarding children's privacy.
In addition, the app and ByteDance are also accused of ignoring parents' requests to delete their children's accounts. Even if the app and the company know that an account is being used by a child under the age of 13, they have not taken action.
TikTok opposed these accusations on Friday and said many of the accusations involve past events and are not in line with the facts or have been resolved. We are proud of our efforts to protect children and will continue to update and improve the platform. TikTok noted that the company will actively delete the accounts of underage children and provide policies such as screen time limits and family pairing and other functions to protect minors.
TapTechNews note: TikTok users aged 13 to 17 can enter their passwords every half hour to extend TikTok usage time, while TikTok users under the age of 13 must be provided with passwords by parents or guardians to continue using.
FTC Chair Lina Khan said: TikTok knowingly and repeatedly violates children's privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children across the country. The FTC referred this case to the Department of Justice in June. The FTC seeks to impose a fine of up to $51,744 (TapTechNews note: currently about 375,000 RMB) for each violation per day, and if TikTok is convicted, it could theoretically reach billions of dollars.