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The US Justice Department (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have filed a lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance for allegedly violating child privacy law.
The social media giant was accused of infringing the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by letting kids create normal TikTok accounts and collecting personal information from those young users without their parents’ consent. Moreover, the Kids Mode still collected email addresses and other personal info.
Parents who learned about their children’s accounts and asked TikTok to delete them “frequently” got no action, according to the lawsuit. The company ‘s processes for scrubbing these accounts were supposedly “deficient and ineffectual.”
TikTok and ByteDance have purportedly operated this way since 2019, even after they were placed under a court order that required steps to improve compliance. TikTok “knowingly and repeatedly” treaded on child privacy, FTC Chair Lina Khan said.
In a statement to Techopedia also posted on X, TikTok said it rejected the lawsuit allegations as either “factually inaccurate” or resolved in the past. It maintained that it had “stringent safeguards” and “proactively” deleted the accounts of underage users, among other protections.
Our statement on today's lawsuit by the Department of Justice:
"We disagree with these allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed.
We are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to…
— TikTok Policy (@TikTokPolicy) August 2, 2024
The case comes as TikTok faces a looming ban in the US. ByteDance has less than a year to sell its US TikTok operations over concerns that China could force TikTok to hand over sensitive data or modify recommendations to manipulate American users. TikTok has repeatedly denied the claims, but hasn’t had success in persuading politicians.
Most states have already banned TikTok on government devices as well as those of contractors. Montana tried to ban TikTok outright, but that law was blocked in December 2023 on free speech grounds.
This lawsuit only seeks injunctive relief and financial penalties, so TikTok can likely still operate if it isn’t banned through other means. However, it might be forced to put in strict age verification and other processes to make it difficult for children under 13 to sign up.
