TikTok and the United States Department of Justice are already preparing arguments for an upcoming case that will challenge the constitutionality of the U.S. government’s “divest-or-ban” law. Now, a second, unrelated court date has been added to both parties’ calendars. The DoJ will question TikTok’s child safety policy as part of a consumer protection lawsuit that began as a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint.
Earlier this week, several outlets reported that the FTC referred a complaint about TikTok and parent company ByteDance to the DoJ. The complaint had two parts: A claim that TikTok misled U.S. users about data security, and a claim that TikTok violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting data from users under the age of 13. The DoJ will drop the first part of the complaint, but the COPPA-related allegations will be argued in the upcoming lawsuit.
The FTC declined to comment on the DoJ decision. In a statement provided to BBC News, a TikTok spokesperson expressed disappointment over the FTC’s choice.
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COPPA has been a thorn in tech companies’ side since its rules governing children on social media platforms went into effect in 2020. TikTok and ByteDance have been slapped with multiple fines, and competitors like Google have been hit as well.
The U.S. government’s focus on children’s digital safety across all three branches. During his State of the Union addresses, President Biden has pressed big tech firms to take security seriously. Meanwhile, in Congress, hearings about child safety have turned into wars of words between legislators and tech leaders (including TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg).
Now, the U.S. judiciary will do its part to investigate TikTok’s child safety measures. The lawsuit is unrelated to the aforementioned court battle challenging the divest-or-ban law, but both cases will concern similar topics. In its lawsuit against the DoJ, TikTok may argue that the U.S. government failed to give serious consideration to a security plan called Project Texas. Here’s what we can say for certain: The legal teams at TikTok and the DoJ are about to have their hands full.
