Justice Department sues TikTok, accusing the company of violating a children's online privacy law
FILE-In this photo illustration a boy looks at a iPhone showing various social media apps including TikTok, Facebook and X. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
The Department of Justice sued TikTok on Friday, alleging that the social media company violated a children’s online privacy law.
TikTok and its China-based parent company ByteDance are accused of violating a federal law that requires kid-oriented apps and websites to get parental consent before collecting personal information of children under 13 years old.
The DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission allege TikTok knowingly let children create accounts and retained their personal information without notifying their parents.
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Information collected by TikTok included activities on the app used to build user profiles. The DOJ and FTC also claim that TikTok shared the data of young users with other companies – like Meta’s Facebook and AppsFlyer, an analytics company called to persuade "Kids Mode" users to be on the platform more.
The lawsuit also accuses TikTok of letting children create accounts without having to provide their age, or obtain parental approval, by using credentials from third-party services.
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Citing a Justice Department release, the Associated Press noted that the alleged violations resulted in millions of children under 13 using the regular TikTok app, allowing them to interact with adults and access adult content.
According to the Associated Press, the DOJ decided to file the lawsuit after an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission that examined whether the companies were complying with a previous settlement involving TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly.
Musical.ly was sued in 2019 by the federal government after being accused of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and failing to tell parents about its gathering and use of personal information for kids under 13.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.