TECH NEWS – The Department of Justice (hereafter referred to as DOJ) believes that the Chinese social networking platform owned by ByteDance, which is aimed at the Western market, collects a lot of data.

According to the DOJ, TikTok illegally collected millions of children’s data in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) because minors were able to create accounts without parental consent, and when they asked for the information to be deleted, TikTok failed to do so. In response, a company spokesperson said that these violations have already been addressed, so these are just unwarranted accusations.

TikTok must pay up to $51744 for each COPPA violation, and several countries are already considering banning the Chinese platform. In the United States, ByteDance could be forced to sell the site to prevent a hostile country from owning the platform. TikTok has sued the U.S. government over this, claiming that the U.S. Congress wants to ban the site in one of the largest markets for the platform.

COPPA requires TikTok to prove that children are not its primary audience. The site accomplishes this by requiring a date of birth during registration… but the DOJ has pointed out the ineffectiveness of this very thing, as minors can get around this barrier by entering false dates. TikTok collects data directly from these users, even if they have directly identified themselves as minors. TikTok’s Kids Mode has also been criticized for continuously collecting data without notifying parents, also in violation of COPPA.

TikTok was previously sued by five thousand parents for the effect it had on their children, with the lawsuit essentially calling ByteDance’s site a drug, and thus also serving up sexually explicit, violent and suicide-related content to users. However, with the DOJ’s lawsuit, the US state has essentially officially shut down ByteDance’s platform, putting the two countries at odds on a new front…

Source: GameRant, DOJ