Protection of minors: TikTok targeted by an American agency

The American Consumer Protection Agency, the FTC, indicated on Tuesday that it had made a report to the Department of Justice concerning TikTok for possible violation of the law protecting minors on the internet.

The FTC explains that it initiated a follow-up investigation to ensure that the platform respected the conditions of an amicable agreement reached in 2019, according to a press release posted online on its site.

At the time, the Agency criticized TikTok’s ancestor, Musical.ly, for having unduly collected the personal data of minor users. TikTok had agreed to pay $5.7 million in compensation and undertook to comply with the provisions of the so-called COPPA law (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act), adopted in 1998.

The checks initiated by the FTC “gave it reason to believe that” TikTok and its parent company, the Chinese group ByteDance, “have violated or are in the process of violating the law”.