TikTok slapped with US lawsuit for 'massive' child privacy violations

The United States sued TikTok on Friday alleging that the popular has endangered the safety of millions of children by unlawfully collecting their personal information without parental consent.

This move is part of a wider effort to address concerns about TikTok’s data collection practices.

The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have file a civil suit, accusing TikTok of violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) which prohibits the gathering of personal information from children under 13 without parental approval, the BBC reported.

"TikTok knowingly and repeatedly violated kids' privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children across the country," FTC chair Lina Khan said in a release.

The suit argues that since 2019 TikTok has allowed children to use the app, collecting and using personal data from young users, even the accounts created in a "Kids Mode", without letting their parents know.

TikTok and its parent company ByteDance often "failed to honor" requests by parents to have their children's accounts and data removed, and had ineffective policies for identifying and deleting accounts created by children, Justice Department officials said in the release.

TikTok spokesman Alexander Haurek maintained that the company has safeguards to ensure age-appropriate experiences, and removes accounts suspected of being from underage users.

"We disagree with these allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed," he told AFP.

"We are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to update and improve the platform."

The allegations against TikTok — which has 170 million US users — come as it faces a mid-January 2025 deadline to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a US ban, after President Joe Biden signed a bill earlier this year.

The bill was signed amid concerns that ByteDance could, and would, comply with Chinese government demands for data about US users.

However, ByteDance has no plans to sell TikTok, leaving the lawsuit, which will likely go to the US Supreme Court, as its only option to avoid a ban.