American authorities raise new charges against TikTok

The FTC did not provide any further details about the alleged violations in its announcement on Tuesday. Normally such a transfer of a case to the Ministry of Justice is not announced – but this time, from the point of view of the authority, it is in the interest of the general public. In the USA, the Federal Trade Commission is responsible for, among other things, consumer protection and also plays an important role in competition policy.

Tiktok said it has been in discussions with the FTC for more than a year. The company expressed its disappointment that the authority took the legal route “instead of continuing to work with us to reach a reasonable solution.” Even after TikTok's statement, the specific allegations remained unclear. Meanwhile, the video platform responded that many of them referred to past events and practices that were partially incorrect or had already been remedied.

Data collected from children

In 2019, Tiktok agreed to pay $5.7 million to resolve FTC allegations regarding predecessor company Musical.ly. The problem was that, contrary to US law, data was collected from children under 13 without their parents' consent.

According to the FTC, the current investigations against Tiktok and its China-based parent company Bytedance began with a review of whether the platform was following the requirements of the agreement at the time.

Tiktok is currently defending itself against a law in the USA that would force a change of ownership. There are concerns in US politics that the Chinese government could access US users' data via Bytedance and use the app for propaganda. Tiktok refuses and goes to court in the United States of America to stop the law.