(New York) The American Consumer Protection Agency, the FTC, indicated on Tuesday that it had made a report to the Department of Justice concerning TikTok for possible violation of the law protecting minors on the internet.
The FTC explains that it initiated a follow-up investigation to ensure that the platform respected the conditions of an amicable agreement reached in 2019, according to a press release posted on its site.
At the time, the Agency criticized the ancestor of TikTok, Musical.ly, for having unduly collected the personal data of minor users.
TikTok agreed to pay $5.7 million in compensation and undertook to comply with the provisions of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), adopted in 1998.
The FTC clarifies that it generally does not publicly report a report to the Department of Justice. She said she considered it “in the public interest” to do so in this case.
The Agency’s communication comes the day after the publication, in the New York Times, of an article by the Surgeon General of the United States, Doctor Vivek Murthy, calling on social networks to clearly display “a message of prevention » on their platforms “to alert of the significant dangers they represent for the mental health of adolescents”.
During a hearing in the House of Representatives in March 2023, TikTok boss Shou Chew faced a barrage of questions about TikTok’s responsibility regarding the mental and physical health of young people.
“Your company has destroyed their lives,” declared Florida Republican elected official Gus Bilirakis, pointing to the parents of a teenager who committed suicide, who came to attend the hearing.
They filed a lawsuit against the social network, which they accuse of showing thousands of unsolicited suicide videos to their son.
TikTok is facing several civil proceedings brought for having insufficiently protected minors who use its platform.
