Justice Department sues TikTok; Nvidia faces antitrust investigation by US regulators

The Justice Department sued TikTok on Friday, accusing it of violating children’s online privacy laws and violating a settlement with another federal agency.

The complaint, filed jointly with the Federal Trade Commission in a California federal court, comes as the United States and the leading social media company are embroiled in another legal battle that will decide whether — and how — TikTok will continue to operate in the country.

The latest lawsuit centers on allegations that TikTok, a trend-setting platform popular with young users, and its Chinese parent company ByteDance violated a federal law that requires apps and websites aimed at children to obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13. The lawsuit also alleges that the companies failed to honor requests from parents to delete their children’s accounts and failed to delete accounts even when they knew they belonged to children under 13.

“This action is necessary to prevent repeat offending defendants from collecting and using the private information of young children without parental consent or supervision,” Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said in a statement.

TikTok said it disagrees with the accusations, “many of which reference past events and practices that are factually incorrect or have already been discussed.”

Nvidia faces antitrust investigation by US regulators

Antitrust tensions are heating up in the chip industry, with rivals accusing Wall Street darling Nvidia of abusing its dominant market position in selling chips that power artificial intelligence — and the U.S. Department of Justice is currently investigating the complaints, technology news site The Information reported.

Justice Department officials are investigating suspicions that Nvidia could potentially dominate the market and pressure its customers to unfairly continue doing business, according to the news agency, which cited anonymous sources familiar with the discussions.