The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, for failing to protect children’s privacy on the app, citing violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The suit, joined by the Federal Trade Commission, aims to stop TikTok’s “massive-scale invasions of children’s privacy,” accusing the platform of collecting personal information from users under age 13 without parental consent.
TikTok, with around 170 million U.S. users, faces additional scrutiny and pressure to divest its U.S. assets by January 19, 2024, or risk a ban. The lawsuit is part of broader concerns that TikTok improperly collects vast amounts of data on Americans and influences content to potentially harm users. TikTok refuted the allegations, claiming they are outdated or have been addressed, and emphasized its efforts to protect children.
The FTC seeks substantial penalties from TikTok for each violation, which could amount to billions of dollars. This lawsuit follows earlier investigations into TikTok’s compliance with a 2019 agreement to protect children’s privacy and recent fines from the EU and UK. Concurrently, the U.S. Senate passed a bill to extend COPPA protections to teens up to age 17, ban targeted ads to minors, and allow data deletion requests from parents and teens, pending approval from the House.
