Caught in the heart of a legal and media storm, the TikTok application would only have a few months of reprieve before being banned in the United States.
TikTok may have enjoyed dazzling success across the world, but the short video application could well disappear overnight in the United States. The US Department of Justice has just declared a new complaint against the application.
This complaint is based in particular on an old case violating the law for the protection of minors in the United States in 2019 and which cost TikTok nearly $6 million. The affair caused a lot of noise, since at the time, the application had been responsible for collecting the personal information of the youngest users. This type of complaint is not usually brought to the public’s attention, but the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) believes that this is a unique measure and in the best interest of users.
TikTok’s response was not long in coming. Those responsible for the application consider these complaints and allegations to be outdated and no longer relevant.
The recent law passed in April 2024 still forces the company ByteDance to sell the TikTok application to an American subsidiary. Otherwise, TikTok would simply be banned in the United States. The days therefore seem numbered for the application which now only has two choices: abandon the American market or sell its American subsidiary to possible investors. Problem: the company is heavy and few candidates currently seem interested in a potential takeover, although recent controversies could well lower its value.