Simply months after TikTok was banned in the USA, the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) seems to be rubbing salt into TikTok’s wounds. The company issued a weird message saying it was referring complaints about social media apps to the Division of Justice (DOJ).
The U.S. Federal Commerce Fee issued assertion mentioned on Tuesday that its investigation “discovered motive to imagine” that TikTok and its guardian firm ByteDance have been “violating or about to violate the regulation.” The committee mentioned these actions violated (or might have violated) the Kids’s On-line Privateness Safety Act (“COPPA”) and the Federal Commerce Fee Act, however didn’t present particular particulars. Moreover, the assertion famous that the FTC usually doesn’t publicize this motion, nevertheless it believed it was within the public curiosity to subject the assertion. So we’re letting what they assume it’s best to know.
A Justice Division spokesperson mentioned they may not touch upon the substance of the handover, however the division did seek the advice of with the FTC prematurely and was contemplating the declare.
Within the assertion, the FTC talked about how its investigation started in 2019 into Musical.ly, the predecessor of TikTok. On the time, the fee did discover that the corporate was “conscious {that a} important proportion of its customers have been below the age of 13 and had acquired hundreds of complaints from mother and father,” and fined $5.7 million. It is unclear whether or not the complaints towards TikTok are associated or if the investigation uncovered different violations.
TikTok mentioned it has been working with the FTC for greater than a 12 months to deal with its doable considerations.
“We’re disillusioned that the company filed a lawsuit as a substitute of constant to work with us to discover a affordable decision,” a TikTok spokesperson mentioned in an emailed assertion on Tuesday. “We strongly disagree with the FTC’s allegations, lots of that are inconsistent with previous We’re happy with the work we do to guard youngsters and can proceed to replace and enhance our merchandise.
Whereas TikTok remains to be extremely well-liked, it isn’t in the very best place but. In April, President Joe Biden signed a invoice requiring Divest TikTok or face US ban. The social app can have 270 days to iron out a few of its kinks, or it might probably look ahead to the upcoming presidential election and hope Trump wins as a result of he all of a sudden wakes up Help Douyin. Possibly he discovered a dance on the app that he favored watching.
