Tik Tok is in crossfire of US authorities

By Alimat Aliyeva

The TikTok short video app has once again found itself in the crossfire of the US authorities. This time, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is taking action against the popular video platform, Azernews reports.

The charge reads: TikTok violated the US law on the protection of children's data. Negotiations between the video platform and the Federal Trade Commission have been going on for a year, but legal steps are now being taken. TikTok denies all the accusations.

Especially noteworthy: As a rule, such proceedings are not made public, but the FTC sees great public interest in this topic. However, the information situation remains difficult. Neither TikTok nor the Federal Trade Commission provided more details.

In parallel with the accusations of data protection, the platform is under pressure to separate from its Chinese parent company ByteDance. A recently passed U.S. law aims to enforce this law. TikTok has a year to make a decision. If TikTok does not separate from ByteDance, the short video app may be banned in the United States.
TikTok sued the decision, citing freedom of speech. The company also stated that it is not interested in selling the app. They would rather close the app in the US market than sell it.

Meanwhile, European authorities are also expanding their investigations into TikTok. In February, the EU initiated formal proceedings against the application. It is suspected that the platform promotes addictive behavior (addiction) and thus the protection of children is not sufficiently guaranteed.

In the spring, an additional EU warning appeared due to the new version of the TikTok Lite app. Users receive digital coins when they watch videos. They can then be exchanged for vouchers on various online services. The new version of the app has already been launched in France and Spain. Despite the risks associated with the addictive effect, TikTok brought the new feature to the market "without effective risk reduction measures," the EU Commission notes. TikTok responded promptly and published a report on how to minimize risks, and suspended the corresponding function.

The legal proceedings against TikTok are still ongoing. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen confirmed that the EU may also ban TikTok if the allegations are confirmed during the review process.

Despite all the contradictions, it is obvious that the popularity of the application remains unchanged all over the world. TikTok, with millions of users in the EU alone and about a billion active users worldwide, remains one of the most important players among social networks. However, if a ban is indeed imposed in the US, competitors such as Facebook's parent company Meta or YouTube could benefit significantly from this.