On Friday, the Justice Department sued TikTok, accusing the company of violating children’s online privacy laws and breaching a settlement with another federal agency.
The complaint, filed in California federal court alongside the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), adds to the ongoing legal challenges that could determine TikTok’s future operations in the U.S.
The lawsuit alleges that TikTok and its China-based parent company, ByteDance, violated federal law by collecting personal information from children under 13 without parental consent, a requirement for kid-oriented apps and websites.
TikTok has yet to respond to the allegations.
Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, stated, “This action is necessary to prevent the defendants, who are repeat offenders and operate on a massive scale, from collecting and using young children’s private information without any parental consent or control.”
The lawsuit follows an FTC investigation into whether TikTok was complying with a previous settlement involving its predecessor, Musical.ly. In 2019, the federal government sued Musical.ly for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by failing to notify parents about its data collection practices for children under 13. ByteDance, which acquired Musical.ly in 2017 and merged it with TikTok, agreed to a $5.7 million settlement and a court order to comply with COPPA, which the government claims TikTok has not adhered to.
The complaint alleges that TikTok knowingly allowed children to create accounts and retained their personal information without parental notification. This included accounts created in “Kids Mode,” a version of TikTok for children under 13.
The Justice Department and FTC assert that TikTok collected information such as app activities and other identifiers to build user profiles, and shared this data with companies like Facebook and AppsFlyer to re-target less active “Kids Mode” users.
TikTok also allegedly permitted account creation using third-party credentials without verifying age or obtaining parental approval, resulting in numerous “age unknown” accounts.
Federal officials claim that when parents requested account deletions, these requests were often ignored, leading to millions of children under 13 using the regular TikTok app and potentially interacting with adults and accessing adult content.
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In March, an individual familiar with the matter informed the AP that the FTC was also investigating whether TikTok violated federal laws against “unfair and deceptive” business practices by denying Chinese access to U.S. user data. However, these allegations were not included in the current complaint, which seeks civil penalties and injunctive relief.
