San Francisco (United States) (AFP) – TikTok has agreed to pay $400 million to settle a lawsuit with the US Department of Justice over claims that the video-sharing platform violated federal children’s privacy laws, the department announced on Friday. Regulators around the world have been ramping up enforcement against social media companies that violate laws around protecting children’s data, privacy, and safety. Chinese company ByteDance — which sold off a majority stake of its US entity earlier this year in order to avoid a ban by the Trump administration — is also named as part of the settlement. It has a 19.9% ownership stake in TikTok US, according to US media.
“Under the settlement, TikTok will pay $300 million immediately and an additional $100 million upon entry of an order vacating a prior consent decree entered against TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly,” the department said in a statement. It’s “one of the largest recoveries ever obtained” from a case involving the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the statement continued. COPPA bars websites from gathering the personal information of children younger than 13 without parental permission.
The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission jointly sued TikTok in 2024, alleging that it had placed the safety of millions of children in jeopardy by collecting their personal data without parental permission. They claimed that TikTok allowed children to use the app in addition to collecting and using personal data from young users without letting their parents know. Even accounts created in a “Kids Mode” intended for users younger than 13 gathered email addresses and other personal information, the suit claimed.
In 2019, the US filed a COPPA lawsuit against an app called Musical.ly, which ByteDance bought in 2017 and then merged into TikTok. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to an ABC News report in May, the Trump administration was considering using the funds for ongoing “beautification” projects, which have included resurfacing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, renovating the White House ballroom, and building an arch. It was not immediately clear what the settlement funds will be used for.
– Global crackdown –
The US settlement comes amid a growing global crackdown on the video app. Brussels began a probe into TikTok in 2024 under the Digital Services Act (DSA) — a content law and major weapon in the EU’s boosted legal armory that it has deployed to rein in Big Tech in recent years. In July, the European Union accused TikTok of failing to protect children through account settings that can expose them to risks like cyberbullying and predatory behavior, putting the company at risk of a large fine. The EU said minors’ accounts should only be visible to those they have given permission to. Children ages 13 and over can use TikTok.
“A high level of protection should not be an opt-in; it should be the default,” EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said in a statement at that time. Under the DSA, children’s account settings have, by default, the strongest safety and security protections. “TikTok’s account settings fail to meet this standard, as they expose minors’ accounts and content too widely,” the EU said in its preliminary view.
Britain’s communications regulator also launched an investigation into TikTok in July. The UK probe will look into whether TikTok is doing enough under UK law to protect children from harmful content. “This investigation will seek to establish whether there are reasonable grounds to believe that TikTok has failed, or is failing, to comply with its legal obligations,” Ofcom said in a statement. It added that it would in particular look at TikTok’s age-verification model.
© 2024 AFP
