The US government has filed a lawsuit against popular social media app TikTok, accusing it of privacy violations that have left millions of children vulnerable to data collection and exposure to adult content.
"TikTok knowingly and repeatedly violated kids’ privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children across the country," stated Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina M. Khan in a press release accompanying the lawsuit. Following an investigation, the FTC referred the case to the Justice Department to pursue legal action.
The allegations against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, focus on violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). This law prohibits websites from knowingly collecting or using personal information from children under 13 without parental consent. The complaint asserts that TikTok and ByteDance failed to delete accounts of users known to be children, in violation of COPPA.
"Instead, 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 government said.
TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek responded to the allegations and said, "We disagree with these allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed." He emphasized the company's commitment to protecting children and highlighted their efforts to improve the platform with features like age-appropriate experiences, default screen time limits, Family Pairing, and additional privacy protections for minors.
The government is seeking civil penalties and a court order to prevent future violations of the child privacy law. While it did not specify the total financial amount sought, it cited a law allowing for penalties of up to $51,744 for individual violations since January 10, 2024.
This lawsuit adds to the growing list of challenges for the short-form video app. In April, President Joe Biden signed a law requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok's US assets by January or face a ban in the US The government argues that TikTok's ownership structure, based in China, poses a national security risk by potentially allowing the Chinese government to gather sensitive information on the 170 million Americans who use the app. TikTok has sued, claiming the law violates free speech protections.
Allegations of child privacy violations are not new for TikTok. An earlier version of the app, known as Musical.ly until 2019, was ordered to pay a $5.7 million civil penalty in May of that year for similar violations. This included orders to destroy personal information for children under 13, remove accounts with unidentified age users, and maintain records of compliance with child privacy rules.
Despite these previous actions, the new lawsuit asserts that TikTok and ByteDance have continued to fail to delete child accounts and information identified by their own employees and systems. The violations are described as occurring "on a massive scale," resulting in years of personal information collection on millions of American children under 13, according to the government.
