A 12-year-old Londoner took legal action against TikTok, claiming the app violated data projection laws governing the European Union. A judge in that British city granted the girl anonymity so that her claim could be successful and with the aim of preventing her from being harassed online. In addition, it is indicated that not reserving his name could have a paralyzing effect in eventual presentations of other similar cases.
Anne Longfield, who will take the case to court on behalf of the minor, pointed out in this regard that keeping the girl’s name in reserve is very important since if her identity were made public she could face “harassment online by other kids or TikTok users (…) and negative or hostile reactions from influential people on social networks ”.
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The minor “intends to go to court claiming that her privacy rights and those of others like her were violated in ways that require redress, Judge Mark Warby said.
According to the magistrate, the presentation is at a very early stage, but the planned claim “involves serious criticism of what may be key aspects of the platform’s mode of operation.”
Laws in Europe
Following Bloomberg, the collection of private data from children by the TikTok app is under strict scrutiny by the control bodies of the European Union. In mid-2020, specialized groups coordinated an investigation to evaluate the practices of the application managed by ByteDance, a company of Chinese origin.
In response, the Asian company stated that “privacy and security are the main priorities of TikTok”, and that for this they apply policies, processes and technologies to protect all users, especially the youngest.
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TikTok is an app focused on short videos that has achieved great success in recent years. In 2020 it was the most downloaded tool in the world, and it already has more than 2 billion installations, with 800 million active users per month. In addition to the investigations in Europe, ByteDance faces challenges in other key markets: it has been blocked in India, and the United States faces a long battle that plans to lead to the sale to a firm in that country, amid accusations of espionage and delivery. of data to the government of China.
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