TikTok has agreed to pay $400m to the US to settle a lawsuit alleging its platform violated children's privacy, marking one of the largest-ever settlements over the issue. The deal stems from a 2024 suit by the Department of Justice, under former President Joe Biden.
Record-Breaking Settlement Over Child Privacy Concerns
TikTok, owned by ByteDance, has agreed to pay $400m (£293m) to the US to settle a lawsuit alleging its platform violated children's privacy. The lawsuit was filed in 2024 by the Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden, alleging that TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, collected "vast amounts of data" on millions of users under the age of 13.
The settlement is one of the largest-ever penalties for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a federal law enacted in 2000. It's the same law that dozens of US states are now suing Meta over.
Other Companies Have Paid for COPPA Violations
Other companies that have paid penalties to the US government for COPPA violations include Google's YouTube, which paid $170m in 2019, and Epic Games, which paid $275m in 2022. Meta is also now facing penalties that could exceed hundreds of billions of dollars stemming from COPPA violations alleged by attorneys general of 29 US states.
Immediate and Further Payments
Under the terms of the deal, TikTok and ByteDance will immediately pay the DOJ $300m. It will pay another $100m when the government vacates a 2019 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission. As part of the agreement, the predecessor to ByteDance, Musical.ly, was required to pay a $5.7m fine for COPPA violations and ensure it sought parental consent for any user aged under 13.
Changes to TikTok's Operations
The Justice Department noted that since it sued the platform, TikTok has "undergone significant changes," including to its ownership, privacy practices and platform controls for young users. When the lawsuit was filed, attorneys for the US said that more than 170 million teenagers were using TikTok and that the app was "directed to children." Yet it did not effectively verify users' ages or obtain parental consent from underage users.
A Shift in TikTok's Operations
Its US operations are now 81% owned by a consortium of investors, while ByteDance maintains a 19% stake. A representative of TikTok did not respond to the BBC for comment. Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate said, "Children and parents are better protected today than they were when this case began."
Source: JOY
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