The primary focus of the FTC’s investigation revolves around allegations that TikTok may have breached the Children’s Online Privacy Protection rule. This rule mandates that companies must provide clear notification to parents and obtain explicit consent before collecting data from children under the age of 13. Additionally, the FTC examines whether TikTok engaged in “unfair or deceptive” business practices, a violation under the FTC Act, particularly concerning denials that individuals in China could access TikTok user data.
The implications of this probe could be significant for TikTok, with potential outcomes ranging from a lawsuit to a settlement with the FTC anticipated in the upcoming weeks. Politico first reported this news.
In response to inquiries about the investigation, FTC Director of Public Affairs Douglas Farrar stated, “No comment.” Meanwhile, TikTok has yet to make a public comment regarding the issue.
This investigation emerges at a critical time for TikTok, as the platform faces existential threats in the U.S. Recently, a bipartisan group in the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would compel TikTok to be sold by ByteDance or risk being banned from U.S. app stores. This bill is now pending in the Senate, and President Joe Biden has expressed his readiness to sign it should it reach his desk. However, Senate leaders have indicated a more cautious approach, which may delay or jeopardize the bill’s progression.
Despite the controversies, TikTok, which does not operate in China, maintains that it does not pose a national security threat to U.S. citizens and that the Chinese government has never accessed U.S. user data. In response to concerns about data privacy, TikTok has tried to safeguard its U.S. user data by storing it on cloud servers managed by the American tech giant Oracle and by implementing strict internal protocols to restrict access to this data by non-U.S. employees.
In 2022, TikTok confirmed to Congress that its employees based in China could access U.S. user data. This acknowledgment followed a report by BuzzFeed News, which revealed that ByteDance employees had accessed this data several times. During his first congressional testimony last year, TikTok CEO Shou Chew admitted that some ByteDance employees were terminated for spying on U.S. journalists in a flawed effort to identify leakers within the company.
