Feb.28,2018, users at Weathersfield, Connecticut play TikTok port synchronization
Just as President Trump signed the latest executive order to ban transactions with TikTok( International), parents of American minors filed a class action against TikTok in federal courts accusation TikTok sent their children's information to a Chinese server.
law experts say the key to the case is evidence, and the future of the case can not be judged until the Supreme Court makes a final decision on similar cases.
The executive injunction against Trump president TikTok threat to go to u.s. courts, but TikTok may first face class action from american folk. Earlier, dozens of parents of minors in the United States have filed lawsuits against TikTok Chinese social media platform.
Over the past year, at least 20 separate similar lawsuits have been filed in the federal court, These lawsuits represent TikTok users in California and Illinois, accusation TikTok video applications, collecting facial recognition data from underage users, user location data, and data from close contacts, and sending data to servers in China.
All of these independent but similar federal lawsuits require TikTok companies to obtain the written consent of the user before collecting data on personal identity. At present, these independent proceedings have been merged into a class action case.
On 4 August, a Federal judge Panel ruled that the case would be heard by the Illinois-based Federal North District Court; the presiding judge was John Lee (John Z.Lee)
Are there TikTok odds of a class action
The plaintiff's lawer is believed to require the presiding judge to approve the extension of the lawsuit into a national class action lawsuit, which could affect tens of millions of American users.
TikTok said the company's claims that it sent user information to servers in china were untrue because its u.s. users' primary servers were in virginia and its backup servers were in singapore. The data collected in the U.S. has never been transmitted to Chinese servers or Chinese authorities., TikTok said
If the plaintiff and the defendant disagree, even if the presiding judge approves the case to become a class action, how can the plaintiff's class action win? From the available information, it is still difficult to judge, according to relevant law experts in the United States.
New York law scholar Yu Ping believes that although the previous independent similar cases, the plaintiff's claim is legitimate, but whether the case can be filed, it is up to a jury to decide. "The class action (class action) is a rights, in the U.S. law, and it's another matter whether or not a suit can win ," Yu told VOA.
If they can win, Yu Ping said, from the perspective of parental custody, their past claims are arguable; but whether they can be established in the court must be decided by a jury. A jury will examine whether TikTok harm children or minors, and there is room for discretion.
TikTok categorically deny the plaintiffs' accusation,, but the company is under increasing pressure from government United States to avoid a protracted law war. On the evening of 6 Trump 8, the president of the united states signed an executive order that would ban u.s. nationals or companies from engaging in business with TikTok and its parent chinese company, byte jump, social app, and its parent company, tencent ,45 days later, with penalties for violating the rules.
The analysis concluded that although the executive order of President Trump would not have any effect on the class action case in the United States Family v. TikTok, once the case was found, the class action case could cost TikTok company hundreds of millions of dollars.
The recent use of the same law, in Illinois against Facebook (fb) using facial recognition technology prompted Facebook to agree to pay $650 million to settle a record amount of compensation for data privacy disputes. law expert analysis, if the court approves the TikTok action to become a national class action case, TikTok must pay the settlement amount may exceed the Facebook payment.
The debate about whether TikTok threat national security in the United States has focused on the question that so far no one has been able to provide direct evidence that TikTok is sending information about United States citizen to Chinese servers and possibly to the Chinese Communist Party.
New York law expert Yu Ping believes that the key to TikTok whether the class action case can be established is evidence. "It's mainly about evidence ," he said. The reason why evidence is difficult to obtain is that it is difficult to obtain from outside, only from inside. "
Yu Ping explained that in terms of law procedures, judge have the authority to call witnesses and obtain evidence, and the plaintiff's lawer will also ask the other party (TikTok) to provide evidence on how the data was handled in internal operations.
Jane Cortley, Professor of Media ethics and Law
Media ethics and Law Professor Jane Curtley (Jane Kirtley), in an interview with VOA, said that in the current situation, to ask whether the class action has a chance of winning ," the short answer is: we don't know yet ," she said.
Curtley is a professor of law and journalism at the University of Minnesota, specializing in media regulation research and teaching.
Analysis on whether TikTok can file a class action
TikTok argued that the lawsuit should be dropped immediately under the social platform's user agreement. Because the TikTok terms of service include the so-called arbitration clause, the user agrees when using the service that any complaint about the company can never be part of the class action.
law experts noted, however, that the law and provisions of United States states differed with regard to arbitration clauses in user service agreements. Under the California law, arbitration clause, for example, minors are not applicable; they can still bring prosecute proceedings if they believe they have been harmed.
TikTok lawer tony weibel (Tony Weibell) wrote in a submission to the court :" the privacy policy of the application is also fully disclosed and user data will be shared with subsidiaries of TikTok companies, third-party business partners and service providers, standard terms for free social network applications with ad-based business models. "
On the other hand, the lawer on behalf of TikTok users said that since data collection was believed to have occurred before the user agreed to the terms of service, users of any age should be able to be recognized on the court.
"As noted, California's data privacy laws protect minors and their personal identity information ," Kotri, a professor of media law at the University of Minnesota, told VOA. Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the Federal Child Online Privacy Protection Ordinance (COPPA), parental consent must be required and social media companies must take reasonable steps to confirm whether parents or guardians really agree; minors have the right to choose not to be collected at any time. "
Professor Curtley also pointed out that, similar to the California law's ban on the inclusion of minors in arbitration clauses ," the Illinois Biometrics Act (BIPA) also has very strict provisions on notification and the nature of data collection, retention and sharing ". Current cases against TikTok are known to have merged into class action cases in the Federal Court of the Northern District of Illinois, similar to the recent Facebook class action case before the Court.
"As we know, data collection and sharing accusation TikTok the plaintiffs began even before consent was obtained. If this is the case, then mere notification is almost certainly not enough: because before you are told, you have agreed to collect data. And it doesn't matter what the terms of service say, because they may be found to be contrary to public policy ," Professor Cortley wrote in an email to VOA.
However, Professor example, Professor Curtley stated that the same federal court (the Northern District Federal Court of Illinois) had ruled that social media "Shutterfly" enforceable unilateral (unilateral) arbitration clauses.
court information shows that a plaintiff recently lost a battle with the "Shutterfly" law" in North Illinois. The court then ruled that the "Shutterfly" arbitration clause was binding, although" Shutterfly" unilaterally amended its terms of use, including the addition of the arbitration clause after the plaintiff clicked on "acceptance ", and that the arbitration clause was not binding. The case is currently on hold pending the outcome of the arbitration.
Professor Curtley explained that arbitration clauses governing users are common in all social media. "The decision of the same federal district court in Illinois basically held that, in order for the arbitration clause to be enforceable, the platform should show users the clause in a conspicuous manner ," she said.
As for the prospect of similar cases in the future, the media ethics law expert said that before the United States Supreme Court makes a final decision on these issues, there may be a variety of decisions across the country, depending on which applied.
"And we are convinced that it is ins in the TikTok's interest to try to make the lawsuit disappear, because pending litigation often prevents potential buyers like Microsoft from buying it ," Professor Curtley said.
