TikTok, also known as Douyin (Chinese: 抖音; pinyin: Dǒuyīn; literally: ‘vibrating sound’) in China, is a media app for creating and sharing short videos. Owned by ByteDance, the media app was launched as Douyin in China in September 2016 and introduced to the overseas market as TikTok one year later. It is a leading short video platform in Asia, United States, and other parts of the world. In 2018, the application gained popularity and became the most downloaded app in the U.S. in October 2018 (Source: WiKi).
Recently, the popular video-sharing App TikTok has charged a fine of $5.7 million by the US Federal Trade Commission(FTC) for collecting data such as names, email, addresses, and their location from children under the age of 13.
The FTC pointed out that the App violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. The Federal Trade Commission said the penalty against the app Musical.ly, now known to be TikTok, is the largest ever obtained in a children’s privacy case.
“TikTok should be nowhere near children and children should be nowhere near TikTok”, Josh Goblin, who directs the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood.