The government's scrutiny of TikTok has intensified, culminating in a lawsuit accusing the platform of violating a pivotal federal statute designed to safeguard children's online privacy. On Friday, the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission jointly filed a complaint in the Central District of California, targeting TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance for unlawfully gathering personal data from minors. This legal action highlights alleged transgressions of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the cornerstone legislation safeguarding young internet users by placing restrictions on tracking mechanisms employed by social media platforms, video game hubs, and digital advertising ecosystems.
This development stems from a groundbreaking revelation by the FTC in June, which, in an unusual step, disclosed that its investigation had "uncovered grounds to believe" that both companies had either violated or intended to violate COPPA. This announcement came amidst a high-stakes First Amendment confrontation between the government and TikTok, with the fate of the social media giant hanging in the balance – either ByteDance must relinquish ownership or face a nationwide ban.
In response, a TikTok spokesperson issued a statement, vehemently disagreeing with the allegations, asserting that many of them pertained to outdated occurrences or practices that were either factually misguided or had already been rectified. The company emphasized its commitment to offering age-tailored experiences fortified with robust safeguards, proactively expunging suspected underage users, and voluntarily introducing features like default screen time caps, Family Pairing, and enhanced privacy measures exclusively for minors, demonstrating its dedication to protecting young users' digital wellbeing.
According to the complaint filed on Friday, TikTok has, since 2019, willfully facilitated minors in creating regular accounts on its platform, inadvertently paving the way for these young users to engage, view, and interact with adults. These accounts, the lawsuit reveals, have been a conduit for TikTok to amass a vast array of personal information from these children, often without securing the consent of their parents. Alarmingly, even accounts created within "Kids Mode," a feature tailored for users under 13, fell prey to this data harvesting spree.
Parents' pleas to TikTok for deleting these profiles, the complaint laments, were met with indifference and neglect, highlighting a glaring lack of effective policies and procedures to identify and expunge child-created accounts. Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer expressed profound concern in a statement, stating, "The Department is gravely troubled that TikTok persists in gathering and retaining children's personal data in defiance of a court order prohibiting such actions. Through this legal action, we aim to enforce TikTok's obligation to safeguard children's privacy rights and uphold parents' endeavors to protect their young ones."
The investigation that uncovered potential breaches of COPPA, a statute mandating websites and online services catering to children to secure parental consent before collecting their data, stems from Musical.ly's $5.7 million settlement with the FTC in 2019 – then the largest civil penalty imposed by the commission in a similar case. This probe intensifies the spotlight on TikTok, which merged with Musical.ly in 2017, a deal still under scrutiny by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment.
At the heart of lawmakers' scrutiny of TikTok lie lingering concerns about the potential transfer of user data to the Chinese government and allegations, albeit unsupported by evidence so far, that the platform may be influencing the content its users encounter.
