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The U.S. government has filed a new lawsuit against TikTok, accusing the social media company of illegally collecting children’s data and failing to respond when parents tried to delete their children’s accounts.
The U.S. Justice Department said the company’s actions amounted to a “massive” violation of children’s privacy and violated laws requiring online companies to obtain parental consent to collect information from children under 13.
Officials said the company and its parent company ByteDance were “repeat offenders” and pointed to a similar case in 2019.
TikTok disputed the claims and said it was “proud” of its efforts to protect children.
The company said it has proactively removed underage users and voluntarily adopted protective measures such as default screen time limits and additional privacy protections for minors.
A spokesperson said: “We disagree with the allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices and are not factually accurate or have been addressed.”
“We are proud of our efforts to protect children and we will continue to update and improve the platform.”
The complaint increases pressure on TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance, which are already battling a U.S. law that threatens to ban the company from the country.
In the filing, the United States accused TikTok of “flawed” ways of screening accounts created by children and of obstructing parents when they tried to delete their accounts.
A review of 1,700 requests from parents to cancel their accounts between 2019 and 2020 found that 30% were still active in November 2021, the documents show.
Administrators tasked with reviewing accounts flagged as minors are only authorized to take action if they see a clear acknowledgement of the child’s age, and have limited access to users’ videos, the statement said.
They often have just seconds to make a decision, the report said.
Officials asked the court to order a halt to TikTok’s actions and determine penalties for each violation.
“This action is necessary to prevent the defendants from collecting and using the private information of young children without parental consent or control, a practice that is repeat offenders and occurs on a massive scale,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.
TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, with over 1 billion users worldwide and over 170 million users in the United States.
A Pew Research Center survey found that more than 60% of American teenagers aged 13 to 17 use the platform, and more than half of them use it every day.
The lawsuit said the U.S. government seeks to “terminate” TikTok’s alleged “unlawful and large-scale violations of children’s privacy.”
The company has faced fines in the UK and Europe for similar issues.
(BBC News)
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