The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against TikTok, accusing the company of violating children’s online privacy law and breaching a previous settlement agreement with a federal agency.
The complaint, filed jointly with the Federal Trade Commission in a California federal court, comes amid a legal battle between the U.S. and the popular social media platform that could impact TikTok’s operations in the country.
The lawsuit alleges that TikTok, known for its young user base, and its parent company ByteDance, based in China, violated a federal law that mandates parental consent for collecting personal information from children under 13.
People are also reading…
TikTok has not responded immediately to requests for comment.
“This action is necessary to prevent the defendants, who are repeat offenders operating on a large scale, from collecting and using children’s private information without parental consent or control,” said Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.
The U.S. decided to pursue the lawsuit following an FTC investigation into whether the companies were complying with a previous settlement concerning TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly.
In 2019, the federal government sued Musical.ly, now part of ByteDance and merged with TikTok, for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by not informing parents about the collection and use of personal information of kids under 13.
Musical.ly agreed to pay $5.7 million to settle the allegations and comply with COPPA under a court order, which the government claims has not been met.
The lawsuit alleges that TikTok knowingly allowed children to create accounts and retain personal information without parental notification, even in “Kids Mode,” a version for kids under 13.
The information collected included user activities and other identifiers used for building user profiles, which TikTok allegedly shared with other companies to engage “Kids Mode” users more effectively.
TikTok also allowed children to create accounts without age verification or parental approval through third-party services, resulting in millions of “age unknown” accounts, according to the lawsuit.
Parents’ requests to delete their children’s accounts were reportedly not honored, leading to millions of children under 13 having access to the regular TikTok app and its adult content.
While the FTC investigation also looked into allegations of TikTok denying access to U.S. user data by individuals in China, these claims were not part of the lawsuit seeking civil penalties and injunctive relief.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission.
