Justice Department Sues TikTok and Parent Company ByteDance for Widespread Violations of Children’s Privacy Laws

The Justice Department, together with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), filed a civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against TikTok Inc., ByteDance Ltd., and their affiliates (together, TikTok) for violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and its implementing regulations (COPPA) in connection with the popular TikTok app. COPPA prohibits website operators from knowingly collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children under the age of 13, unless they provide notice to and obtain consent from those children’s parents. It also requires website operators to delete personal information collected from children at their parents’ request. In 2019, the government sued TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly, for COPPA violations, and since then the defendants have been subject to a court order requiring them to undertake specific measures to comply with COPPA. According to the complaint, from 2019 to the present, TikTok knowingly permitted children to create regular TikTok accounts and to create, view, and share short-form videos and messages with adults and others on the regular TikTok platform. The defendants collected and retained a wide variety of personal information from these children without notifying or obtaining consent from their parents. Even for accounts that were created in “Kids Mode” (a pared-back version of TikTok intended for children under 13), the defendants unlawfully collected and retained children’s email addresses and other types of personal information. Further, when parents discovered their children’s accounts and asked the defendants to delete the accounts and information in them, the defendants frequently failed to honor those requests.  The defendants also had deficient and ineffectual internal policies and processes for identifying and deleting TikTok accounts created by children.