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US Accuses TikTok of Violating Children’s Privacy in New Lawsuit

Written by Jerry Alomatu on August 2, 2024

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On Friday, the United States filed a lawsuit against TikTok, accusing the app of infringing on children’s privacy by collecting personal data without parental consent. The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) allege that TikTok, a popular video-sharing platform, has breached the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

FTC Chair Lina Khan stated, “TikTok knowingly and repeatedly violated kids’ privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children across the country.”

COPPA mandates that websites must not collect personal information from children under 13 without parental approval. The lawsuit claims that since 2019, TikTok has allowed children to use the app and gather their data without notifying their parents. Even accounts in the app’s “Kids Mode” collected personal information, including email addresses.

According to the complaint, TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, have often ignored parental requests to delete children’s accounts and failed to enforce effective policies to prevent such accounts from being created.

“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,” said Brian Boynton, Deputy Assistant Attorney General.

This lawsuit follows a similar case five years ago involving Musical.ly, which ByteDance had acquired and merged into TikTok. That case led to TikTok making changes to comply with COPPA.

Separately, the Justice Department recently argued that TikTok poses a national security threat due to its data collection practices. This claim comes in response to ByteDance’s challenge to a law that would force the sale of TikTok by January 2025 or result in a US ban. TikTok has countered, arguing that such a ban would infringe on First Amendment rights and silence millions of American users.

The ongoing legal battle will likely escalate to the US Supreme Court, as TikTok seeks to prevent a potential shutdown and continues to challenge the government’s claims.