The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) on Friday sued social platform TikTok and its parent company ByteDance for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). COPPA blocks websites from collecting, using, and disclosing data from minors under the age of 13 without explicit parental consent.
In the lawsuit [PDF], the US DoJ alleges that from 2019 on, TikTok has knowingly allowed children under 13 to create and use TikTok accounts without their parents’ knowledge or consent, has collected extensive data from those children, and has failed to comply with parents’ requests to delete their children’s accounts and personal information. TikTok allegedly even collected data from accounts created in Kids Mode.
The DoJ says the TikTok app has millions of users under the age of 13, which the DoJ says has subjected them to “extensive data collection” and allowed them to “interact with adult users and access adult content.” The lawsuit also accuses TikTok of making it difficult for parents to get their child’s account and data deleted.
The Department of Justice is seeking civil penalties for every COPPA violation and injunctive relief that would prevent TikTok from continuing to collect data from children.
This latest lawsuit is not the only legal battle between the US DoJ and TikTok parent ByteDance. The US government has already passed a bill requiring the Chinese-owned social network to be sold off to a non-Chinese firm or face a ban in the US.
A bill signed into law by President Biden on April 24, 2024, requires TikTok owner ByteDance to sell the social media network or face a ban in the United States. The company was given nine months to comply, although there could be a possible three-month extension if a deal is in the works.
Several reports indicate that ByteDance will not sell TikTok or divest itself from the platform, as selling the platform would require ByteDance to also sell the algorithms that power both TikTok and the company’s other businesses.