WASHINGTON, June 19 (Bernama-dpa) -- The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has referred a complaint against the popular video-sharing app TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance to the Department of Justice, alleging that they failed to protect children's privacy, reported German news agency (dpa).
In a statement on Tuesday, the FTC indicated it had "uncovered reason to believe" that TikTok and ByteDance are "violating or are about to violate" the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The regulator did not specify the details of the alleged violations in its statement.
The FTC noted that it typically does not make referrals of complaints public, but made an exception here in the public interest. The FTC is responsible for consumer protection in the US and also 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 more than a year.
"We're disappointed the agency is pursuing litigation instead of continuing to work with us on a reasonable solution," it said, adding that many of the FTC's allegations related to past events and practices and were factually inaccurate or have been addressed.
In 2019, TikTok agreed to pay US$5.7 million to settle FTC allegations against its predecessor company, Musical.ly, concerning the collection of data from children under the age of 13 without parental consent, in violation of US law.
-- BERNAMA-dpa
BERNAMA provides up-to-date authentic and comprehensive news and information which are disseminated via BERNAMA Wires; www.bernama.com; BERNAMA TV on Astro 502, unifi TV 631 and MYTV 121 IFLIX channels and BERNAMA Radio on FM93.9 (Klang Valley), FM107.5 (Johor Bahru), FM107.9 (Kota Kinabalu) and FM100.9 (Kuching) frequencies.
Follow us on social media :
Facebook : @bernamaofficial, @bernamatv, @bernamaradio
Twitter : @bernama.com, @BernamaTV, @bernamaradio
Instagram : @bernamaofficial, @bernamatvofficial, @bernamaradioofficial
TikTok : @bernamaofficial
