U.S. Government Files Lawsuit Against TikTok

The Department of Justice sued TikTok on Friday, alleging the company violated children’s online privacy law and breached a settlement it had previously reached with another federal agency.

The lawsuit, filed in collaboration with the Federal Trade Commission in a California federal court, arrives amidst ongoing negotiations between the U.S. government and the social media platform that will determine if – or how – TikTok will continue to operate in the country.

The latest legal action centers on accusations that TikTok, a popular platform among young users, and its China-based parent company ByteDance contravened a federal law requiring kid-oriented apps and websites to obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13.

TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“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,” Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, stated in a press release.

The U.S. government decided to initiate the lawsuit after an investigation to determine whether the companies were adhering to a previous agreement involving TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly.

In 2019, the federal government filed a lawsuit against Musical.ly, alleging it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, by failing to inform parents about its collection and use of personal information for children under 13.

That same year, Musical.ly — acquired by ByteDance in 2017 and merged with TikTok — agreed to pay $5.7 million to resolve those allegations. The two companies were also subject to a court order requiring them to comply with COPPA, which the government asserts has not been followed.

In the complaint, the Justice Department and the FTC claim TikTok has knowingly allowed children to create accounts and retained their personal information without informing their parents. This practice extends to accounts created in “Kids Mode,” a version of TikTok for children under 13, Justice explained in a press release detailing the lawsuit.

The two agencies allege the collected information included activities on the app and other identifiers used to build user profiles. They also accuse TikTok of sharing the data with other companies – such as Meta’s Facebook and an analytics company called AppsFlyer – to incentivize “Kids Mode” users to engage more with the platform, a practice TikTok referred to as “re-targeting less active users.”

The complaint states that TikTok also permitted children to create accounts without needing to provide their age, or obtaining parental approval, by utilizing credentials from third-party services. It categorized these as “age unknown” accounts, which the agencies state have reached millions in number.

After parents discovered some of their children’s accounts and requested their deletion, federal officials said their requests were not fulfilled. In a press release outlining the lawsuit, Justice stated that the alleged violations have resulted in millions of children under 13 utilizing the standard TikTok app, allowing them to interact with adults and access adult content.

In March, a source familiar with the matter had informed the Associated Press that the FTC’s investigation was also examining whether TikTok violated a portion of federal law prohibiting “unfair and deceptive” business practices by denying that individuals in China had access to U.S. user data.

Those allegations were not included in the complaint, which is seeking civil penalties and injunctive relief.