US lawsuit against TikTok to focus on
children's privacy
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[June 22, 2024]
By Jody Godoy
(Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice plans to focus an upcoming
lawsuit against TikTok on allegations that the popular social media
platform violated the privacy rights of children, rather than claims it
misled adult users about its data privacy practices, according to a
source familiar with the matter.
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U.S. flag is placed on a TikTok logo in this illustration taken March
20, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo |
The
U.S. Federal Trade Commission investigated the potential
violations by TikTok and its parent company ByteDance and
referred the case to the Justice Department on Tuesday.
"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," the FTC said in a
statement at the time.
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.
TikTok has said it strongly disagrees with the FTC's allegations
and is disappointed the agency decided to pursue a lawsuit.
The probe is separate from ongoing concerns in Congress about
the potential that the data of TikTok's 170 million U.S. users
could be improperly accessed by the Chinese government.
TikTok denies the allegation.
TikTok is challenging a law passed in April that requires its
Chinese-parent ByteDance to divest TikTok's U.S. assets by Jan.
19 or face a ban.
ByteDance said in the case on Thursday that a ban would be
inevitable without court intervention, and that a divestiture is
"not possible technologically, commercially, or legally."
(Reporting by Jody Godoy in California, Editing by Louise
Heavens)
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