Washington, D.C. — In response to news that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is referring its complaint against TikTok to the Department of Justice Civil Division after finding significant violations of COPPA and the FTC Act—along with what it describes as “reason to believe named defendants are violating or are about to violate the law and that a proceeding is in the public interest”—the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement.
“With growing national consensus that social media companies create real harm for our children, it’s great to see the FTC is taking action to hold TikTok accountable,” said Nidhi Hegde, Interim Executive Director of the American Economic Liberties Project. “Big Tech companies like TikTok and parent ByteDance have been aggressively lobbying Washington for years to sway policymakers into overlooking their detrimental effect on youth mental health and wellbeing. We urge the Civil Division to take swift action, bring the full breadth of the FTC’s complaint in a lawsuit, and send a clear message: no company is above the law, especially when it comes to protecting our children’s privacy.”
Learn more about Economic Liberties here.
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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.