House China panel requests FTC investigation into whether TikTok violated child privacy laws

A bipartisan panel of lawmakers with a House Select Committee that focuses on China, requested the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) open an investigation whether TikTok violated child privacy laws.

TikTok had sent a pop-up message to users on the app that the committee claimed contained "verifiably false information" in a last-ditch effort to stop Congress from passing the "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Application Act" last month.

House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar, and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi, sent a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan on Thursday, asking her to launch a federal inquiry into whether the company had violated any laws, or its own terms of service, when sending the pop-up.

"We are gravely concerned that an app controlled by the Chinese Communist Party appears to have the unfettered ability to manipulate the American public, including America’s children," the lawmakers wrote. “Notably, there is public reporting that TikTok’s campaign impacted ‘young children in classrooms’ and others who appeared to be under the age of 13. The solicitation of children using deceptive and inflammatory information resulted in at least one instance of threatened self-harm, with a Congressional office reporting a call from a child threatening suicide.”

The lawmakers clarified that the alleged "TikTok ban" does not actually ban the app in the United States, but rather allows the app to operate in the U.S. if the platform is not owned by the Chinese-based company ByteDance or another company controlled by a foreign adversary.

The lawmakers are also seeking information on whether the pop-ups actually went to children under the age of 13, and if not, how the children came to know about the pop-up that had only been intended for adults. TikTok has maintained that the alert only went to adults.

“This letter doesn’t pass the smell test," a TikTok spokesperson told NBC News. "As we've said repeatedly, these notifications went to users aged 18 and older and users receiving them always had multiple options to dismiss the notification. It is disheartening that Members of Congress are expressing concern simply because they heard from their own constituents imploring them not to pass a bill trampling on their First Amendment rights."

Moolenar and Krishnamoorthi are also concerned that the pop-up message, which encourages users to reach out to their local members of Congress, compelled children to give out their zip-codes in order to find their congressional representatives and lobby Congress.

The letter is the first operation Moolenar has conducted with Krishnamoorthi since former Rep. Mike Gallagher stepped down from Congress last month.