A UK High Court judge has granted permission for a class-action style privacy lawsuit to proceed against TikTok over its handling of children's data.
The lawsuit was filed in December of 2020 by a then 12-year-old girl who was granted anonymity by the court to bring the claim that the social networking site is processing children's data unlawfully.
If the legal action succeeds, TikTok could be on the hook to pay billions of dollars in compensation for millions of children who were abused.
The UK litigation proceeding contacted TikTok.
Anne Longfield, the former Children's Commissioner for England, is supporting the claim that TikTok has broken UK and EU data protection law. She wants the suit to make sure that under 16s are protected when using the service in England. The suit is being brought under the UK's Data Protection Act 1998.
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The decision to allow the suit against TikTok to proceed was not a given. The action had been stayed pending the outcome of a class-action privacy litigation brought against Google, which was seeking representative damages for privacy harms.
The Supreme Court was not persuaded to allow privacy damage to be compensated for as a group, and that was the reason why the appeal was successful. There were doubts about whether the class action would be allowed to proceed. The Lloyd -v- Google case was predating the introduction of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation.
The judge allowed the TikTok suit to be served against a number of linked corporate entities that are based outside of the UK, and which the claimants argue are implicated in the processing of children's data.
If the court agrees with TikTok's counter arguments, the case could be thrown out.
Mr Justice Nicklin of the Supreme Court wrote that the issue was primarily law and the proper interpretation of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation.
The test is whether the argument advanced by the Claimant has a chance of success. I consider that she has satisfied me at this stage, and that there is a serious issue to be tried on this point, because I have heard only the Claimant's argument properly argued.
The Beijing-based entity behind the TikTok algorithm may not be able to be served within the allotted time because the judge has not allowed more time to serve all the defendants.
Since the TikTok suit was filed, the Children's Code has come into force in the UK, requiring digital services which are likely to be accessed by children to comply with a set of design standards intended to prioritize privacy and safeguard.
Tech platforms in the UK are facing a major new content oversight regime with a strong child protection component fast coming down the pipe: The government is in the process of pushing the Online Safety Bill through parliament and that legislation is also linked to meaty fines for violations.
TikTok is under scrutiny by the European Commission following a series of consumer protection and child safety complaints last year, and in the wake of an emergency data protection procedure instigated in Italy following reports of the death of a child.
Ireland's Data Protection Commission is the lead authority for the EU data protection investigation of TikTok's handling of children's information.
There is a data suit filed against TikTok in the Netherlands.
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