TikTok Loses Amparo Against INAI

In November, 2022, a federal judge denied the petition of the company TikTok to stop the investigation procedure initiated against it by the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI). 

In April, 2021, INAI announced it would begin a verification process against TikTok to validate the regulation on personal data. In response, the company imposed an amparo to stop the procedure. However, according to Proceso, Martín Santos, Eighth District Judge in Administrative Matters in Mexico City, denied the amparo last August and the sentence was notified to the company in November. 

According to Santos, the investigation against TikTok to verify whether or not the platform violates the personal data of Mexican users does not in itself imply a direct impact on the company, since it is not a sanction. The judge pointed out that if INAI decides to initiate a sanction procedure against TikTok, the company will have the opportunity to offer evidence, arguments and refute the alleged irregularities. 

According to the institute, these revision procedures are rudimentary and none external complaints were raised against TikTok. Meanwhile, Tik Tok has already filed a review appeal.

At an international scale, after US legislators expressed their concerns regarding personal data management by the company owned by the Chinese firm Bytedance, TikTok established an agreement with the US government so that Oracle, an American software company, would store users' data in the US. Additionally, the US Data Security Division (USDS) would monitor data protection and content moderation decisions. According to Reuters, the company has spent US$1.5 billion in the creation of this unit. 

Moreover, TikTok has proposed to create a proxy board managed by the USDS division independent of ByteDance. Andrew Bonillo, former US Secret Service agent, is responsible for this new division on an interim basis and for now it reports to TikTok’s Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew.

On Dec. 22, ByteDance declared that some workers had improperly accessed data from two American journalists who used TikTok. The firm stated that the workers were no longer employed by the company. This new polemic situation would increase the pressure TikTok faces in Washington over concerns regarding data security for US users.