The Federal Commercial Commission and the U.S. Justice Department are investigating allegations that the popular TikTok app failed to live up to a 2019 agreement aimed at protecting children's privacy.
In this photo illustration, the Tik Tok app is displayed on an Apple iPhone on November 01, 2019 in San Anselmo, California. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has started a national security investigation of social media app TikTok after Beijing ByteDance Technology Co acquired U.S. social media app Musical.ly for $1 billion.
The development is the latest bump on the road for the teen-popular video company. TikTok has seen scrutiny rise sharply due to its Chinese parent corporation, including the National Security-focused Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
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Did Tiktok continue to fail to live up to expectations?
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said earlier this week that the United States is "certainly looking at" banning TikTok. Reports suggest the video application shared information with the Chinese government, a charge it denied.
A staff member in a tech policy group in Massachusetts and another source said they engaged in separate conference calls with officials from the FTC and Justice Department. They said they would be addressing the allegations that TikTok had failed to live up to an agreement agreed in February 2019.
The Center for Digital Democracy and advocacy groups asked the FTC last May to investigate TikTok for refusing to remove personal information about users aged 13 and younger and other violations.
A TikTok spokesperson said they "take safety seriously for all our users." The employee added that in the U.S., they "accommodate users under the age of 13 in a restricted application environment that provides enhanced security and privacy safeguards explicitly tailored for a younger population."
David Monahan, a campaign manager with the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, said FTC and Justice Department officials met through video conference with representatives of the groups to discuss the matter.
"I got the sense from our conversation that they are looking into the assertions that we raised in our complaint," Monahan said.
A second source, speaking privately, reported that advocates had met with two agency officials to address allegations that TikTok had violated the consent decree.
The FTC denied commenting. Department of Justice had no immediate comment.
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More concerns to be discussed
TikTok has become increasingly popular among American adolescents and allows users to create short videos. Approximately 60 percent of the 26.5 million monthly active users of TikTok in the United States are aged 16 to 24, the company reported last year.
U.S. lawmakers also raised national security concerns about TikTok's handling of user data. They expressed their concern about Chinese laws requiring domestic businesses to support and cooperate with the Communist Party of China.
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TikTok, owned by the ByteDance parent company, is one of several Chinese-based companies that have had to navigate heightened U.S.-China tensions over trade, technology, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
It poached Disney's Kevin Mayer as its chief executive under severe U.S. regulatory scrutiny. It is seeking to build a more global brand, with offices in California, Singapore, and elsewhere.
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