The United States government has filed a lawsuit against the popular social media platform TikTok and its parent company ByteDance, accusing them of illegally collecting personal data from children under the age of 13 without parental consent.
This lawsuit, initiated by the Department of Justice (DoJ) in collaboration with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on August 2, 2024.
The complaint alleges that since 2019, TikTok has knowingly allowed children to create accounts and interact with adults on the platform, collecting and retaining their personal information without notifying or obtaining consent from their parents. This practice extends even to "Kids Mode," a version of TikTok designed for users under 13. The collected data reportedly includes email addresses and other identifiers used to build user profiles, which were sometimes shared with other companies like Meta’s Facebook and AppsFlyer for re-targeting purposes.
Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, emphasized the gravity of the situation, stating, “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.”
TikTok, however, has refuted these allegations, claiming that many of the issues raised pertain to past practices that have since been addressed. The company highlighted its efforts to provide age-appropriate experiences and additional privacy protections for minors, including features like default screen time limits and Family Pairing.
The lawsuit also points out that TikTok failed to honor requests from parents to delete their children's accounts and information, often requiring them to navigate a convoluted process. Despite being subject to a court order from a previous settlement involving its predecessor, Musical.ly, TikTok allegedly continued to violate the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
FTC Chair Lina M. Khan expressed her concerns, saying, “TikTok knowingly and repeatedly violated kids’ privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children across the country. The FTC will continue to use the full scope of its authorities to protect children online.”
The U.S. government is seeking civil penalties and a permanent injunction to prevent future violations of COPPA. The outcome of this lawsuit could significantly impact how TikTok operates in the United States, where it boasts 170 million users.
Comments