An official from South Korea's media regulator said on Monday that the agency would investigate TikTok for possible violations of South Korea's personal data protection law. According to industry insiders, TikTok is accused of automatically asking users to receive advertisements, rather than allowing users to consent to receiving such content under Korean law.
An official from the Korea Communications Commission stated that the agency believes that TikTok may have violated the Information and Communications Network Utilization and Data Protection Promotion Act and will launch an investigation soon.
"We believe that TikTok's terms of service and application have problems in obtaining clear and informed consent from users," the official said.
TikTok is also suspected of not sharing the full contents of its terms of service and privacy policy with users when they join the platform.
According to relevant laws, platform companies must allow users to freely decide whether to receive marketing or advertising content and obtain the user's "explicit" consent before sending such content. Violators of this law may be fined up to 30 million won (approximately US$22,279).