US sues TikTok for ‘massive’ privacy violations of children under 13

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Friday against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance for failing to protect children’s privacy on the social media app, as the Biden administration continues its crackdown on the social network.

The government said TikTok violates the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires child-directed services to obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from users under 13.

The Chinese short-video platform has about 170 million users in the U.S. and is currently battling a new law that would force ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. assets by January 19 or face a ban.

The lawsuit is the latest U.S. action against TikTok and its Chinese parent company, based on concerns that the company is illegally collecting massive amounts of data on Americans for the Chinese government while influencing content in ways that could harm Americans.

The lawsuit, joined by the Federal Trade Commission, said it seeks to end TikTok’s “unlawful mass invasions of children’s privacy.”

Rep. Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said the lawsuit “underscores the importance of stripping TikTok of control from the Chinese Communist Party. We simply can no longer allow our adversaries to harvest vast troves of Americans’ confidential data.”

TikTok said Friday that it disagrees “with these allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been misrepresented. We pride ourselves on our efforts to protect children and will continue to update and improve the platform.”

The Justice Department found that TikTok knowingly allowed children to create regular TikTok accounts and then create and share short videos and messages with adults and others on the regular TikTok platform. TikTok collected personal information from these children without obtaining their parents’ consent.

The United States alleges that millions of American children under the age of 13 have used TikTok for years and that the site “collects and stores personal information about children.”

“TikTok knowingly and repeatedly violated children’s privacy, endangering the safety of millions of kids across the country,” said FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan, whose agency referred the case to the Justice Department in June.

The FTC is seeking penalties of up to $51,744 per day per violation for improper data collection. If TikTok were held liable, those penalties could theoretically total billions of dollars.

Reuters first reported in 2020 that the FTC and Justice Department were investigating allegations that the popular social media app failed to comply with a 2019 agreement that aimed to protect children’s privacy.

Last year, the company was fined by the European Union and the UK for processing children’s data.

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed legislation that would expand COPPA to cover teens up to age 17, ban targeted advertising to children and teens, and give parents and children the ability to delete their data from social media platforms.

To take effect, the bill would need to be passed by the Republican-majority House of Representatives, which is currently in recess until September.

(Reporting by Jody Godoy and David Shepardson; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Chris Sanders)