The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is nearing a resolution in its investigation of TikTok, the Chinese-owned short video app, regarding purportedly flawed privacy and data security practices.
Earlier on Tuesday, Politico had reported the potential FTC action, citing individuals with direct knowledge of the situation. Both the FTC and TikTok have refrained from providing comments, and the Justice Department has not issued an immediate response.
In 2020, Reuters reported that the FTC and the U.S. Justice Department were examining claims that the widely-used social media platform had failed to adhere to a 2019 agreement aimed at safeguarding children’s privacy.
This investigation operates independently of ongoing concerns within Congress regarding the possibility of Chinese government access to the data of TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users.
Earlier in March, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill with overwhelming support, granting ByteDance—a Chinese firm that possesses TikTok—approximately six months to divest the app’s U.S. assets or face a prohibition, citing national security apprehensions.
The White House advocated for swift action from the Senate, with President Joe Biden indicating his willingness to sign the bill into law.
In 2021, ByteDance consented to a $92 million class-action settlement to address data privacy complaints from certain U.S. TikTok users.
