TikTok faces $5.7 million violation from the FTC

In the last decade photo and video sharing media outlets have become the newest craze. From Instagram to Snapchat there a tons of new ways to share content online. Within the last year, a new app called TikTok has hit the market and taken the internet by storm. While TikTok is a relatively new app it has reached enormous amounts of popularity since its initial launch in 2017.

In November of 2019 the app reportedly had 500 million users worldwide and had been downloaded over 1.5 billion times. The app is owned by Bytedance a Beijing company founded in 2012 by Zhang Yiming, and is currently valued at $75 billion dollars. According to the website the purpose of TikTok is to make short mobile videos, to inspire creativity, and create joy.

Although the app has achieved extreme success earning 8.4 billion in revenue (CNBC), this has not come without some issues along the way. The company just wrapped up a near three year court battle with US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that lead to a settlement of $5.7 million. TikTok had violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in a number of cases, which concluded with the largest civil penalty in a children’s privacy case ever from the FTC.

Prior to the case the app had no age restrictions from children ages 13 and under, meaning these users could have been exposed to any content that was put out on the app. A community of TikTok users had been soliciting nude images from minors while other under age users were complaining about repeated solicitation for sexual images. “The fact that TikTok users are resorting to the self-policing of pedophile activity on the platform raises concerns about the level of proactive regulation and monitoring of users who seek to engage in the sexual exploitation of children.” (Cox 2018)

You may be wondering, how does the FTC have control over a Chinese company? This is because of the FTC’s International Antitrust Program, which allows the FTC to take action against internet violations. Especially ones that involve under-aged users such as COPPA.

I do believe the FTC had every right to take action against TikTok for this violation. Content on the app can often mention or encourage substance abuse, or show sexual content that I believe is too mature for young audiences. It is especially important that there are age restrictions enforced since most users of the app are young adults.

Statistics say that 44% of users on the app are teenagers and young adults 16–24, and these users spend nearly an hour a day on the app. Since the app is dominated by such a young audience I think it is important that TikTok be filtered to ensure that all content is appropriate.