Law360 Quotes Erik Weinick on DOJ Suit Against TikTok
August 2, 2024
Otterbourg partner Erik Weinick has been quoted in the Law360 story “DOJ Sues TikTok For Sweeping Children's Privacy Breaches.” The article reports on the government’s lawsuit against the social media video app, accusing it of violating children’s privacy laws by collecting personal information from kids under 13 without parental consent.
Weinick, who co-founded Otterbourg’s privacy and cybersecurity practice, says the suit is “profound in a number of ways,” including for the “number of significant allegations against the organization as a whole and senior leadership in particular.” He cites the allegations that TokTok “knowingly allowed children who failed to meet the minimum age requirements to simply change their age and try again to create an account" and that parents were unable to control their children's accounts or get them deleted.
Weinick adds, however, it is important to remember “that the filing of this complaint is but the first step in what is almost certain to be a lengthy process whose outcome may be shaped not only in the courtroom, but in the halls of Congress and in the White House, whose next occupant of course will be determined in November.”
