The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against TikTok on Friday, accusing the company of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Act and failing to comply with an agreement reached with another federal agency.
The complaint, filed jointly with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in a California federal court, comes as the United States and the company are embroiled in a new legal battle that will determine whether — or how — TikTok will continue to operate its service in the country.
The latest lawsuit focuses on allegations that TikTok, a platform popular with young people, and its China-based parent company, ByteDance, violated a U.S. law that requires apps and websites aimed at children to obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“This action is necessary to prevent these defendants, who are repeat offenders and operate on a large scale, from collecting and using private information about young children without any parental consent or control,” Brian M. Boynton, chief of the Justice Department’s civil division, said in a statement.
The United States has decided to take legal action following an FTC investigation into whether the companies complied with an earlier agreement involving TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly.
In 2019, the federal government sued Musical.ly, alleging that it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, by failing to notify parents about its collection and use of personal information about children under 13.
That same year, Musical.ly — acquired by ByteDance in 2017 and merged with TikTok — agreed to pay $5.7 million to settle those allegations. Both companies were also served with a court order requiring them to comply with COPPA, which the government says they have not done.
Children’s Data
In the complaint, the Justice Department and the FTC allege that TikTok knowingly allowed children to create accounts and withheld their personal information without informing their parents. This practice extends to accounts created in “Kids Mode,” a version of TikTok intended for children under 13, the Justice Department said in a statement explaining the lawsuit.
The two agencies say the information collected included activity on the app and other identifiers used to create user profiles. They also accuse TikTok of sharing the data with other companies — such as Facebook and an analytics firm called AppsFlyer — to persuade “Kids Mode” users to be on the platform more, a practice TikTok has called “retargeting less active users.”
The complaint says TikTok also allowed children to create accounts without having to provide their age or get parental approval, using credentials from third-party services. It categorized them as “age unknown” accounts, which authorities say number in the millions.
After parents discovered some of their children’s accounts and requested their removal, federal officials said their requests were not honored. In the press release explaining the lawsuit, the Justice Department said the alleged violations led millions of children under the age of 13 to use the regular TikTok app, allowing them to interact with adults and access mature content.
In March, a person involved in the case told The Associated Press that the FTC’s investigation also seeks to determine whether TikTok violated a part of federal law that prohibits “unfair and deceptive” business practices by denying that individuals in China have access to U.S. user data.
Those allegations were not included in the complaint, which seeks civil penalties and injunctive relief.