WASHINGTON: – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday it had referred a complaint against the social media platform TikTok and its parent company ByteDance over potential violations children’s privacy to the Justice Department.
In March, a source told Reuters the FTC could resolve a probe into TikTok over allegedly faulty privacy and data security practices by either filing suit or reaching a settlement.
“The investigation uncovered reason to believe named defendants are violating or are about to violate the law and that a proceeding is in the public interest, so the Commission has voted to refer a complaint to the Department of Justice,” the FTC said in a statement.
Reuters in 2020 first reported the FTC and the U.S. Justice Department were looking into allegations the popular social media app failed to live up to a 2019 agreement aimed at protecting children’s privacy.
“Although the Commission does not typically make public the fact that it has referred a complaint, we have determined that doing so here is in the public interest,” the statement continued, without giving details.
TikTok said Tuesday it has been working with the FTC for more than a year to address the agency’s concerns.
“We’re disappointed the agency is pursuing litigation instead of continuing to work with us on a reasonable solution,” TikTok said. “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.”
The probe is separate from ongoing concerns in Congress about the possibility of TikTok’s date on 170 million U.S. users being improperly accessed by the Chinese government.
TikTok denies the allegation.
TikTok is set on Thursday to file its legal brief challenging a law passed in April that requires its Chinese-parent ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. assets by January 19 or face a ban.
(REUTERS)
In a career spanning three decades and counting, Ramananda (Ram to his friends) has been the foreign editor of The Telegraph, Outlook Magazine and the New Indian Express. He helped set up rediff.com’s editorial operations in San Jose and New York, helmed sify.com, and was the founder editor of India.com.
His work has featured in national and international publications like the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies, Global Times and Ashahi Shimbun. But his one constant over all these years, he says, has been the attempt to understand rising India’s place in the world.
He can rustle up a mean salad, his oil-less pepper chicken is to die for, and all it takes is some beer and rhythm and blues to rock his soul.
Talk to him about foreign and strategic affairs, media, South Asia, China, and of course India.
