FTC refers COPPA complaint against TikTok to DOJ

The Federal Trade Commission issued a statement regarding its referral to the Department of Justice a complaint against TikTok, the successor to Musical.ly, and its parent company ByteDance Ltd. The Commission vote authorizing the issuance of the statement was 3-0-2, with Commissioners Ferguson and Holyoak recused. “The Federal Trade Commission has referred to the Department of Justice a complaint against TikTok, the successor to Musical.ly, and its parent company ByteDance Ltd.,” the statement reads. “The FTC’s investigation of these companies began in connection with our order compliance review of Musical.ly following a 2019 settlement with the company for violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). The Commission also investigated additional potential violations of COPPA and the FTC Act. The investigation uncovered reason to believe named defendants are violating or are about to violate the law and that a proceeding is in the public interest, so the Commission has voted to refer a complaint to the DOJ, according to the procedures outlined in the FTC Act. Although the Commission does not typically make public the fact that it has referred a complaint, we have determined that doing so here is in the public interest. We look forward to our continued partnership with the Department of Justice in this and other matters as we advance our shared interest in protecting the American people and in enforcing the law without fear or favor.” Publicly traded companies in the social media space include Meta Platforms (META), Pinterest (PINS), Reddit (RDDT) and Snap (SNAP).