The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Friday against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance for failing to protect children’s privacy on the social media app. This legal action is part of the Biden administration’s ongoing efforts to regulate the platform. The government alleges that TikTok violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which mandates that services aimed at children must obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from users under the age of 13.
TikTok, a Chinese-owned short-video platform with approximately 170 million U.S. users, is also contesting a new law that would require ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. assets by January 19 or face a ban. This lawsuit is the latest in a series of U.S. actions against TikTok and ByteDance over concerns that the company collects extensive data on Americans and may influence content in ways that could be harmful.
The lawsuit, supported by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), seeks to end what it describes as TikTok’s unlawful invasion of children’s privacy on a massive scale. Representative Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, emphasized the importance of divesting TikTok from Chinese Communist Party control, stating that the U.S. cannot allow adversaries to harvest vast amounts of sensitive data from Americans.
TikTok responded on Friday, disagreeing with the allegations and claiming that many of the issues cited relate to past events and practices that have been corrected. The company stated, “We are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to update and improve the platform.”
According to the DOJ, TikTok knowingly allowed children to create accounts and share videos and messages without obtaining parental consent. The platform collected personal information from these young users, violating COPPA. The U.S. claims that millions of American children under 13 have been using TikTok, and the site has been collecting and retaining their personal information.
FTC Chair Lina Khan remarked, “TikTok knowingly and repeatedly violated kids’ privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children across the country.” The FTC is seeking penalties of up to $51,744 per violation per day, which could potentially amount to billions of dollars if TikTok is found liable.
This legal action follows previous scrutiny in 2020 when Reuters reported that the FTC and Justice Department were investigating TikTok’s compliance with a 2019 agreement to protect children’s privacy. Last year, TikTok faced fines from the European Union and the U.K. for mishandling children’s data.
Additionally, the U.S. Senate recently passed a bill to extend COPPA protections to cover teenagers up to age 17, ban targeted advertising to kids and teens, and allow parents and children to delete their information from social media platforms. The bill still needs to pass in the Republican-controlled House, which is on recess until September, to become law.
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