US lawmakers want investigation of allegations regarding TikTok and children’s privacy

The lawmakers said TikTok’s failure to comply with the consent decree put it in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, at a time when TikTok use is exploding as more people stay home due to curbs to contain the new coronavirus, which has killed more than 100,000 people in the United States this year. — AP

WASHINGTON: Fourteen Democratic members of the US House of Representatives wrote to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on May 28 to urge it to consider probing the short video app TikTok for “blatant disregard” of a consent decree related to children’s privacy.

The letter from members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the FTC’s work on privacy, follows allegations by the Center for Digital Democracy, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and others that TikTok failed to take down videos made by children under the age of 13 as it agreed to do under a 2019 consent agreement with the FTC.