The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a lawsuit against social media platform TikTok and its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance for allegedly violating child privacy laws.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) “prohibits website operators from knowingly collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children under the age of 13, unless they provide notice to and obtain consent from those children’s parents.”
This law also requires companies to delete children’s personal information at the request of their parents.
COPPA was enacted in 1998 to “protect the safety and privacy of children online by prohibiting operators of Internet websites and online services from the unauthorized or unnecessary collection of information of children younger than 13 years old.”
According to the DOJ, TikTok’s predecessor Musical.ly was sued for COPPA violations and put under a court order in 2019 to pursue specific measures that would ensure compliance with COPPA going forward.
Despite the platform’s new name and ownership, the court’s instruction to destroy any children’s personal data illicitly collected and remove any accounts for which they could not verify the owner’s age remained unchanged.
The complaint filed in court last week alleged that since 2019, TikTok has “knowingly permitted children to create regular TikTok accounts and to create, view, and share short-form videos and messages with adults and others on the regular TikTok platform.”
From these accounts, TikTok allegedly “collected and retained” children’s personal information without “notifying or obtaining consent” from parents.
Even when accounts were created in “Kids Mode” — a version of the app intended for use by children under the age of 13 — the DOJ alleges that TikTok illegally retained email addresses and other personal information from children.
The DOJ goes on to accuse TikTok of failing to delete these accounts and the information associated with them when parents asked them to do so.
The complaint also alleges that TikTok has “deficient and ineffectual internal policies and processes for identifying and deleting TikTok accounts created by children.”
As a result of this lawsuit, the DOJ is seeking civil penalties and injunctive relief.
Click Here to Read the DOJ’s Full Complaint
“The Department is deeply concerned that TikTok has continued to collect and retain children’s personal information despite a court order barring such conduct,” said Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer in a press release. “With this action, the Department seeks to ensure that TikTok honors its obligation to protect children’s privacy rights and parents’ efforts to protect their children.”
“The Justice Department is committed to upholding parents’ ability to protect their children’s privacy,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the DOJ’s Civil Division. “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 knowingly and repeatedly violated kids’ privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children across the country,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “The FTC will continue to use the full scope of its authorities to protect children online — especially as firms deploy increasingly sophisticated digital tools to surveil kids and profit from their data.”
Click Here to Read the DOJ’s Full Press Release
In May of this year, TikTok sued the U.S. government for approving a bill that would ban app nationwide in a matter of months unless ByteDance completely divests from the platform.
This measure was approved with bipartisan support in response to widespread data privacy concerns, as Chinese law requires the country’s businesses to share information with the government upon request.
Despite this, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has denied ever having shared U.S. users’ data with the Chinese government, stating before Congress that the company has begun taking steps to ensure that American data continues to remain shielded from Chinese officials, citing what has become known as “Project Texas.”
Regardless of this, both the federal government and a number of states had previously taken action to ban the download or use of TikTok on government-owned devices due to security concerns.
As of January 2023, 33 states — including Maine — had put in place some form of a ban on TikTok for government-issued devices.
Filed with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, TikTok’s lawsuit argued that the divestment requirement to avert a nationwide ban represents an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment.
[RELATED: TikTok Sues US Government to Halt Enforcement of Potential “Ban”]
TikTok has reportedly not yet responded to requests for comment from the media on the DOJ’s recently-filed lawsuit against the platform.
As of 2024, there are reportedly more than 170 million TikTok users in the United States.
