The Federal Trade Commission announced on Tuesday that it has forwarded a complaint about alleged violations of children’s privacy against social media platform TikTok and its parent company ByteDance to the Department of Justice.
In March, sources told Reuters the FTC could resolve its investigation into TikTok over flaws in its privacy and data security practices by either filing a lawsuit or reaching a settlement.
“The Commission has resolved to file a complaint with the Department of Justice because its investigation has revealed reason to believe that the named defendants have violated or are attempting to violate the law and a legal proceeding is in the public interest,” the FTC said in a statement.
Reuters first reported in 2020 that the FTC and Department of Justice were investigating allegations that the popular social media app was not complying with a 2019 agreement aimed at protecting children’s privacy.
“While the Commission does not normally disclose the facts of a complaint, it has determined that it is in the public interest to do so here,” the statement continued, without elaborating.
TikTok said Tuesday that it has been working with the FTC for more than a year to address its concerns.
“We are disappointed that the agencies are moving forward with litigation rather than continuing to work with us to find a reasonable solution,” TikTok said in a statement. “We strongly disagree with the FTC’s allegations, many of which are factually incorrect or relate to past events or practices that we have already addressed.”
The investigation is separate from ongoing concerns in Congress that data on TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users may have been illegally accessed by the Chinese government, allegations TikTok denies.
TikTok is scheduled to file briefs on Thursday in a lawsuit challenging a law passed in April that gives Chinese parent ByteDance until Jan. 19 to sell TikTok’s U.S. assets or be banned.
