TikTok violates children’s privacy, authorities claim in California lawsuit

CALIFORNIA – Federal authorities recently filed a lawsuit against TikTok, accusing the social media company of widespread and illegal data privacy violations affecting millions of children.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission filed the lawsuit on August 2 in the Central District of California, alleging violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. The law prohibits website operators from knowingly collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children under 13 without parental consent.

“TikTok has knowingly and repeatedly violated children’s privacy and threatened the safety of millions of children across the country,” said commission chair Lina Khan in a press release.

The company allowed children to create regular accounts and create, watch and share videos and messages with adults, authorities said. TikTok also collected users’ personal information without parental consent. Even in the case of “kid mode” accounts, the company illegally collected data from children, authorities said.

According to authorities, TikTok often failed to respond to parents’ requests to delete children’s accounts and had inadequate internal processes for locating accounts created by children.

In 2019, the government sued TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly, for similar violations, and the company has since been ordered by court to take certain compliance measures, authorities said.

TikTok said it disputes the allegations, “many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed.”

“We provide age-appropriate experiences with strong safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users, and have voluntarily introduced features such as default screen time limits, family pairing, and additional privacy protections for minors,” the company said in a statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.