US Department of Justice Sues TikTok for Violating a Child Privacy Law
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has filed a lawsuit against ByteDance-owned TikTok, alleging it violated a child privacy law. Learn more about the department and the FTC’s accusations against the popular social media app.
- The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has filed a lawsuit against ByteDance-owned TikTok, alleging it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
- The department has also accused the popular social media platform of violating a previous agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The US Department of Justice has sued the social media app TikTok and accused it of breaking a child privacy law, which left millions of children vulnerable to adult content and data collection. The Justice Department also accused the popular app of violating a 2019 agreement with the Federal Trade Commission for previous privacy violations. The suit was filed in a California federal court.
See more: White House Backs Bipartisan Bill To Push ByteDance Into Selling TikTok
The Privacy Act Broken by TikTok
The accusations against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, revolved around the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The law prohibits websites from knowingly using or collecting personal information from children under 13 without parental consent.
The FTC was investigating whether companies had violated the terms of a previous privacy settlement involving TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly. In 2019, the social media platform was ordered to pay a $5.7 million penalty, destroy personal information for children under 13, remove accounts related to users with unknown ages, and maintain records related to compliance with child privacy rules.
According to the current lawsuit, TikTok and ByteDance did not delete child accounts identified by the company’s systems and employees. The FTC then referred the issue to the DoJ to bring a lawsuit.
Lina M Khan, commissioner of FTC, said in a statement, “TikTok knowingly and repeatedly violated kids’ privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children across the country.”
The Justice Department also alleged that TikTok allowed kids on its platform through “Kids Mode”, collecting their information and failing to delete their accounts at parents’ requests, violating COPPA. The app collected sensitive information, such as IP addresses and unique device identifiers. It was also accused of failing to notify parents and not getting their consent when their children opened Kids Mode accounts.
Furthermore, the DoJ called TikTok’s age-gating techniques deficient in multiple ways. Under an earlier practice, the platform allowed users to restart account creation even if they had originally entered a birthday showing they were under 13. The platform also allowed users to log in through Google or Instagram, categorizing the accounts as “age unknown”.
In a statement, the government said, “Defendants continue collecting these children’s personal information, showing them videos not intended for children, serving them ads and generating revenue from such ads, and allowing adults to directly communicate with them through TikTok.”
The US government has sought civil penalties and a court order preventing future regulation violations. While the total penalty isn’t specified, the government cited a regulation allowing a penalty of up to $51,744 for individual violations since January 10, 2024.
TikTok Denies Allegations
Responding to FTC and DoJ’s lawsuit, TikTok denied any wrongdoing. In a statement to USA TODAY, the company’s spokesperson, Alex Haurek, said, “We disagree with these allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed”.
“To that end, we offer age-appropriate experiences with stringent safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users, and have voluntarily launched features such as default screentime limits, Family Pairing, and additional privacy protections for minors”, Haurek said.
The lawsuit comes as TikTok risks being banned in the US if it doesn’t divest its US assets within about a year, according to a law signed by President Joe Biden in April this year.
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