The FTC is weighing whether to bring some combination of a new case against TikTok under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, as well as claims that the company violated the earlier settlement. The FTC is also focusing heavily on allegations that the company misled its users by stating falsely that individuals in China do not have access to U.S. user data, according to the people with knowledge of the matter.
TikTok maintains that American user data is siloed in the U.S. Under a settlement reached during the Trump Administration with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, TikTok stores Americans’ user data in Oracle cloud servers in the U.S.
With COPPA fines topping $50,000 per violation, financial penalties in a case under the law could reach tens of billions of dollars or more, though a settlement would almost certainly yield a far smaller number.
In addition to the previous FTC settlement against TikTok, the European Commission opened a probe in February into whether the company breached new online content rules, including its privacy settings. Also in February, several Canadian privacy regulators launched their own investigation, and a group of state attorneys general are probing TikTok as well. Last year the company settled a privacy-related class action lawsuit in Illinois for $92 million.
Further complicating the FTC’s timeline, two Republican FTC commissioners were recently confirmed by the Senate, with Utah Solicitor General Melissa Holyoak sworn in on Monday, and Virginia Solicitor General Andrew Ferguson expected to be sworn in in the coming days. The arrival of the new commissioners could delay things slightly while they get up to speed, the people said.
In July 2022 Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the chair and vice chair of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, urged FTC Chair Lina Khan in a letter to open up a deceptive practices probe of the company over claims that it has deceived its users into believing that individuals in China do not have access to their data.
Warner and Rubio cited reports, including a Buzzfeed News story about U.S. user data being accessed in China. “We write in response to public reports that individuals in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have been accessing data on U.S. users, in contravention of several public representations, including sworn testimony in October 2021,” the pair wrote, referencing Senate testimony from TikTok’s public policy chief Michael Beckerman.
Last year, Warner’s RESTRICT Act took a broader swing at technologies from foreign adversaries, but faced backlash from Republicans who said it gave the administration too much power.
A previous effort to ban the app by former President Donald Trump’s TikTok failed when a federal judge said it exceeded his legal authority.
The outcry against TikTok has been overwhelmingly bipartisan, with President Joe Biden pledging to sign the current bill if it reaches his desk.
文章来源:Politico
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