US DOJ plans to sue TikTok over children's privacy violations, Bloomberg News reports

(Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice is preparing to file a consumer protection lawsuit against ByteDance’s TikTok later this year on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.

The justice department will not pursue allegations that TikTok misled U.S. consumers about their data security in the forthcoming suit, but will instead charge the company of children’s privacy violations, the report said, citing people familiar with the decision.

The department plans to drop one part of the complaint, which claims that TikTok deceived U.S. consumers by failing to inform them that China-based employees of its parent company would have access to their personal and financial information, according to the report.

The DOJ, FTC and TikTok did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Earlier this week, Reuters reported that the FTC had referred to the DOJ a complaint against TikTok and its parent over potential violations of children’s privacy.

Separately, TikTok and ByteDance on Thursday urged a U.S. court to strike down a law they say will ban the popular short video app in the United States on Jan. 19 next year.

 (Reporting by Devika Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Subhranshu Sahu)