The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has referred a complaint against the popular video-sharing app TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to the Department of Justice.
It was alleged that they failed to protect children’s privacy.
The FTC said in a statement that it uncovered reason to believe TikTok and ByteDance were violating or were about to violate the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
The regulator did not provide any further details of the alleged violations in its statement.
The FTC said that it did not typically make referrals of complaints public but “determined that doing so here is in the public interest.’’
The FTC is responsible for consumer protection in the U.S. and plays an important role in competition policy.
TikTok rejected the allegations in a statement on X, noting it had been in talks with the FTC for over a year.
“We’re disappointed the agency is pursuing litigation instead of continuing to work with us on a reasonable solution,’’ it said.
TikTok also said that many of the FTC’s allegations related to past events and practices were factually inaccurate or had been addressed.
In 2019, TikTok agreed to pay $5.7 million to settle FTC allegations against its predecessor company, Musically, concerning the collection of data from children under the age of 13.
These collections were done without parental consent, in violation of U.S. law.
According to the FTC, the current investigation into TikTok and its Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, began with an audit to determine whether the platform was complying with the terms of the previous agreement.
TikTok is currently involved in a separate legal battle in the U.S. over a proposed law that would force a change of ownership.
U.S. politicians are concerned that the Chinese government could potentially access data from American users through ByteDance and use the app for propaganda.
