TikTok hit with record $5.7m fine over ‘disturbing’ child privacy failings

Following their investigation the FTC said it had ‘uncovered disturbing practices', including collecting and exposing the location of young people. TikTok was accused of ignoring requests from parents to delete the information it held.

In response to the scandal, TikTok has now set up a ‘separate’ pared down app for children, which removes the ability to share, comment, message or post a profile. It has also pulled all videos posted by pre-teens.

Musical.ly first rose to prominence in 2014 by allowing members to upload short clips of themselves miming popular songs, during the registration process however users had to hand over their personal details – in violation of the US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

When parents subsequently complained Musical.ly merely shutdown the specific accounts rather than delete their records.

Bytedance was previously fined by the Chinese government for running illegal medical advertisements on news items and video clips.

TikTok launched in the UK at Christmas with a major marketing campaign. The company then spoke to The Drum on its plans to introduce advertising into the app.