Government sues for collecting information about children

In response to increased scrutiny, TikTok was sued by the government for violating a federal law intended to protect children’s privacy online.

The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission, in a lawsuit filed in the Central District of California on Friday, sued TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance for illegally collecting children’s personal data, alleging violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, a major law protecting children online that restricts tracking by online services like social media apps, video game platforms and digital advertising networks.

The move comes after the FTC, in a rare move, disclosed in June that its investigation “disclosed reason to believe” the companies had violated or intended to violate COPPA. The statement comes as the government and TikTok are engaged in a high-profile First Amendment fight that will decide whether ByteDance will be forced to sell the social media platform or face a nationwide ban.

In a statement, a company spokesperson said: “We disagree with these allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been discussed.” He added: “We offer age-appropriate experiences with rigorous safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users, and have voluntarily launched features like default screen time limits, Family Pairing, and additional privacy protections for minors.”

According to Friday’s complaint, TikTok knowingly allowed children to create regular accounts since 2019 that they used to browse, share and interact with adults on the platform. Through those accounts, the company collected a wide range of personal information without obtaining parental consent, the lawsuit said.

The dataset also included accounts created in “Kids Mode,” a version of the platform designed for children under 13. When parents asked TikTok to remove the profiles, it often ignored the requests, according to the complaint, which noted a lack of policies and a process for identifying and deleting accounts created by children.

“The Department is deeply concerned that TikTok continues to collect and maintain personal information from children despite a court order prohibiting such conduct,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer said in a statement. “With this action, the Department seeks to ensure that TikTok is living up to its responsibility to protect children’s privacy rights and parents’ efforts to protect their children.”

The investigation, which uncovered potential violations of COPPA, which requires websites and online services aimed at children to obtain parental consent before collecting data from them, stems from Musical.ly’s $5.7 million settlement in 2019 — at the time, the largest civil penalty the commission had obtained in such a case — with the FTC. ByteDance merged TikTok with Musical.ly in 2017 in a deal that is still being reviewed by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment.

Among the main concerns raised by lawmakers in their review of TikTok was the possibility that the app was sharing user data with the Chinese government or that it was trying to influence the content users viewed on the platform, but no evidence has been presented to date.