TikTok under investigation over alleged children's privacy violations

TikTok faces a new investigation in the United States over potential violations of children's privacy.

A complaint regarding alleged violations of children's privacy was filed Tuesday by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with the U.S. Department of Justice.

The new investigation comes just days before an expected legal challenge by TikTok over a law passed in April that requires its Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest the social media app's U.S. assets by Jan. 19 or face a ban .

In March, a source told Reuters that the FTC could resolve an investigation into TikTok over allegedly flawed privacy and data security practices, either by filing a lawsuit or reaching a settlement.

“The investigation revealed reason to believe that the named defendants are violating or are about to violate the law and that a proceeding is in the public interest. The Commission therefore voted to refer a complaint to the Department of Justice,” the FTC said in a statement. .

In 2020, Reuters first reported that the FTC and the U.S. Department of Justice were investigating allegations that the popular social media app failed to comply with a 2019 agreement to protect children's privacy .

“Although the Commission does not generally make public the fact that it has filed a complaint, we have determined that doing so here is in the public interest,” the statement continued, without elaborating.

TikTok said Tuesday that it has been working with the FTC for more than a year to address the agency's concerns.

“We are disappointed that the agency is taking legal action instead of continuing to work with us to find a reasonable solution,” TikTok said.

“We strongly disagree with the FTC's allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been corrected.”

The investigation is separate from Congress's ongoing concerns that the Chinese government could improperly access the data of TikTok's 170 million U.S. users.

TikTok denies this allegation.

Additional agency reports.