The Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Friday that claims TikTok collects personal data from children illegally. The legal action raises the stakes in the developing dust-up between the U.S. government and the Chinese-owned social media platform.
The government says TikTok allowed users under 13 to create and maintain accounts without getting parental consent in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. It also alleges that TikTok often ignored parental requests to delete accounts belonging to their children, in breach of a 2019 agreement where TikTok had promised to get parents’ consent before collecting their children’s data and vowed not to collect data on users under 13 or take videos from them.
Filed in federal court in Southern California, the lawsuit also names TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance. The lawsuit seeks monetary damages for the alleged violations and aims to halt what the government describes as TikTok’s “massive-scale invasions of children’s privacy.”
TikTok’s response over the lawsuit
In response, TikTok has come out to defend its practices. Alex Haurek, a company spokesman, casually labeled the charges outdated or flat-out wrong. “We are proud of our efforts to protect children,” Haurek said, adding that TikTok will keep working to strengthen its platform’s safety measures.
The lawsuit [PDF] represents the recent confrontation between TikTok and U.S. authorities. President Biden signed a law in recently that could force the app’s sale or ban by January due to national security concerns. TikTok has challenged the measure in court. Meanwhile, lawmakers have displayed even more concern over online safety, which brought rigorous questioning of TikTok CEO Shou Chew and other tech leaders earlier in the year.
TikTok, with over 170 million users in the US, said it had invested heavily in user safety. It bars direct messaging for users under 16 and makes their accounts private by default. Users must be at least 18 to broadcast livestreams.
Recent legislative actions show increased scrutiny on kids’ online privacy. Though the Senate passed a bill called the Kids Online Safety Act, which would firm up protections for kids across social media, it is uncertain if the House will take up this legislation.
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The same criticisms have been made of TikTok across the world. The European Union fined it 345 million euros in September for privacy violations affecting youngsters, and in April 2023, a British regulator fined it for letting more than a million children under 13 years get access to its services.
The lawsuit represents the culmination of an investigation of TikTok practices regarding minors by the Federal Trade Commission. According to the complaint, millions of the users who downloaded TikTok’s app in the United States were under 13 years following an internal company analysis.