A 12-year-old English girl plans to take legal action against the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, alleging that the app uses children’s data illegally.
BBC News reports that a 12-year-old girl is mounting a legal challenge against the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, alleging that the app illegally uses children’s data. A judge has since ruled that the girl can remain anonymous if the case goes ahead and the Children’s Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, is supporting the challenge. Longfield reportedly believes that TikTok has broken U.K. and E.U. data protection laws.
TikTok claims that it has “robust policies” in place to protect children and does not allow anyone under the age of 13 to join the platform. Longfield hopes that the case will lead to greater protective measures for those under the age of 16 who use TikTok in England and possibly in other countries.
Longfield believes that the app collects and processes children’s data to power its video-recommendation algorithm and to capture viewers’ attention and generate advertising revenue. Longfield told the High Court in London that she hoped it would ultimately issue an order forcing TikTok to delete the 12-year-old girl’s data, setting a legal precedent.
But the main purpose of the preliminary High Court hearing was to determine whether the 12-year-old girl could remain anonymous. Justice Warby ruled that the girl risked being cyber-bullied by other children on the platform if her identity was revealed and stated that she could face “hostile reactions from social media influencers who might feel their status or earnings were under threat.”
Longfield is reportedly waiting for the conclusion of a data protection case against Google before deciding whether or not to sue TikTok. TikTok was fined $5.7 million by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in 2019 for its handling of children’s data.
TikTok commented on the latest legal challenge stating: “Privacy and safety are top priorities for TikTok and we have robust policies, processes and technologies in place to protect all users, and our younger users in particular. As this application was made without notice, we first became aware of the application and the High Court’s judgment [on Wednesday] and are currently considering its implications.”
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com
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