TikTok child privacy complaint sent to U.S. Dept. of Justice

TikTok may soon face yet another fight with the U.S. government. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has accused TikTok of violating children's privacy, referring a complaint against the app and parent company ByteDance to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

In a statement released on Tuesday, the FTC announced that it has been investigating TikTok and ByteDance regarding their compliance with a settlement order made to video sharing app Musical.ly in 2019. Musical.ly was aquired by ByteDance in 2017, and subsequently merged with TikTok in 2018.

"The Commission also investigated additional potential violations of [the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)] and the FTC Act," the FTC said in a statement. "The investigation uncovered reason to believe [TikTok and its parent company ByteDance] are violating or are about to violate the law and that a proceeding is in the public interest."

The FTC's $5.7 million settlement with Musical.ly concerned allegations that the app had gathered the personal information of children under 13 without parental consent — a violation of COPPA. According to the FTC, Musical.ly users provided information such as their name, email address, and phone number to create an account, however their age was not requested prior to 2017. This meant that children could create accounts and supply their personal information without parental permission. The FTC also objected to Musical.ly making all account profiles public by default, and allowing users to send direct messages to any other users.

As part of the 2019 settlement, Musical.ly (subsequently known as TikTok) was to remove all videos made by children under 13 and comply with COPPA going forward. TikTok has since implemented several new measures for protecting children's privacy, including introducing a limited app experience for users under 13 and making the accounts of users aged 15 and under private by default. 

Even so, it seems that the FTC still considers TikTok's efforts inadequate, though it has not yet specified exactly how the app is allegedly violating the law. The FTC acknowledged that it usually doesn't publicise when it has referred a complaint to the DOJ, however it "determined that doing so here is in the public interest." 

Mashable has reached out to the FTC for comment.

In a statement to Mashable, a TikTok spokesperson said that it has been working with the FTC to address its concerns for over a year, and was "disappointed" that the government agency is turning to litigation instead of continuing said collaboration.

"We strongly disagree with the FTC's allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed," said the TikTok spokesperson. "We're proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we've done to protect children and we will continue to update and improve our product. We offer an age-appropriate experience with stringent safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users, and have voluntarily launched safety features such as default screentime limits, family pairing, and privacy by default for minors under 16."

U.S. officials have expressed apprehension about TikTok's impact on children multiple times in recent years, though specific concerns tend to vary. Last year Utah filed a lawsuit against TikTok alleging that its "highly powerful algorithms and manipulative design features" are engrossing to the point of being harmful to children. Utah filed a second lawsuit earlier this year, accusing TikTok of enabling children to perform "illicit acts" in livestreams for monetary compensation. TikTok requires users to be over the age of 18 to livestream or receive gifts on its platform.

The U.S.' ongoing beef with TikTok

The FTC's referral comes amidst the U.S. government's dogged efforts to convince the public that TikTok is sinister Chinese spyware. Labelling TikTok a security concern, the U.S. government has accused the Chinese government of spying on users and manipulating its algorithm to show content sympathetic to China — despite there being no evidence to support this. Some senators have also blamed TikTok for young people's support for Palestine, believing that China promoted the cause to incite division in the U.S.

Driven by such concerns, the U.S. Senate passed a ban on TikTok in April, with President Joe Biden swiftly signing it into law. ByteDance now has less than a year to either sell TikTok to an entity the U.S. government approves of, or else exit the country entirely. The latter appears more likely at this stage, TikTok having stated that such divestment was not possible, "not commercially, not technologically, not legally."

Of course, TikTok isn't going down without a fight. ByteDance has since sued the U.S. government over the ban, accusing it of violating the First Amendment right to free speech, while several creators have filed a separate lawsuit on the same basis.

TikTok has had previous success with this argument. Last year a judge blocked a TikTok ban in Montana on the basis that it was unconstitutional. Even so, there's no guarantee the fight will resolve in TikTok's favour again. The Montana ruling certainly didn't stop the federal government from banning the app anyway.

TikTok has 170 million U.S. users, a number which hypocritically includes both President Biden and former president Donald Trump. The company employed almost 7000 people in the U.S. as of March last year, while a study commissioned by TikTok determined that it supported 224,000 jobs and contributed $24.2 billion to the U.S. GDP in 2023.

Many U.S.-based TikTok creators don't believe that a ban will actually go ahead, which feels very much like a "this only happens to other people," "God himself cannot sink this ship" type of attitude. Unless TikTok can fight off the U.S. government and achieve victory in court, your dance challenge days may be numbered.