TikTok Faces Lawsuit After Justice Department Cites Children Online Privacy Law Violations

On Friday, TikTok and its parent company, Bytedance, were sued by the Justice Department. The federal lawsuit that was filed cites that the social media platform unlawfully collected data on young users.

The lawsuit states that TikTok did not adhere to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and a 2019 agreement between TikTok and the Federal Trade Commission in relation to children.

Following an investigation conducted by the FTC, TikTok is accused of allowing children to create accounts and have communication with adults on their site since 2019. In addition to that, they are accused of gathering and maintaining personal details from the children and not getting approval from their parents.

The lawsuit alleges that once TikTok found out about children creating regular accounts, they didn’t take any action to get rid of them.

Although TikTok contains a component called “Kids Mode” for those who are under 13, the company did not inform parents or get their approval for other accounts that were prohibited.

Not only that, TikTok is also gathering details on children with prohibited accounts that can tell their activity details, their device information, details on their mobile carrier, and more, the department says.

It also noted that those who moderate TikTok barely spend any time trying to identify if profiles were of children.

Additionally, the lawsuit states that TikTok gave information that they gathered from prohibited accounts to third parties.

The Justice Department is now seeking a permanent injunction against any other violations of the child privacy law, civil penalties for past actions, and more.

In a statement, TikTok says that the accusations and information that was provided is incorrect or has already been fixed. They also said that they continuously monitor their platform, and if users are found to be underage, they are removed.