The Federal Trade Commission will file a lawsuit or reach a settlement in the coming weeks to pursue an investigation into TikTok, a Chinese-owned short video app that has been found to have flaws in privacy and data security practices, sources told Reuters. He said it could be resolved.
Politico previously reported on possible FTC action. Tuesday, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The FTC and TikTok declined to comment. The Justice Department did not immediately comment.
Reuters reported in 2020 that the FTC and Justice Department were investigating the popular social media app’s alleged failure to comply with a 2019 agreement aimed at protecting children’s privacy.
The investigation is separate from ongoing concerns in Congress about the possibility that the data of TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users could be illegally accessed by the Chinese government. TikTok denies the allegations and says it has robust data security rules in place.
In early March, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would give ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, about six months to sell the app’s U.S. assets or face a ban, citing national security concerns. passed with an overwhelming majority.
Senators have not yet decided how to proceed.
The White House said the Senate should take “swift action” and President Biden said he would sign the bill.
In 2021, ByteDance agreed to a $92 million class action settlement to resolve data privacy claims from some TikTok users in the United States.
