TikTok agrees to $400M settlement over child privacy lawsuit
What's the story
TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have agreed to a $400 million settlement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ). The deal resolves allegations that the popular social media platform violated federal laws aimed at protecting children's online privacy. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2024 under President Joe Biden's administration, accusing TikTok of breaching the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
Data breach
Allegations of underage users on TikTok
The DOJ alleged that TikTok allowed millions of children under 13 to use its platform and collect their personal information without obtaining necessary parental consent.
The settlement requires TikTok to pay $300 million upfront and an additional $100 million after a prior consent decree against Musical.ly, TikTok's predecessor, is vacated.
This settlement is one of the largest recoveries ever in a COPPA case.
Enhanced safeguards
Measures to enhance protections for young users
Along with the monetary settlement, TikTok has also agreed to implement measures aimed at enhancing protections for its young users.
These include stronger age-related controls, additional safeguards for children, and measures intended to give parents more control over their children's activity and personal information on the platform.
However, it's worth noting that neither TikTok nor ByteDance has admitted any wrongdoing as part of this agreement.
Persistent issues
TikTok allowed children despite facing federal action
The 2024 lawsuit also claimed that TikTok had allowed a large number of children to remain on its platform for years, despite facing federal action over children's privacy in 2019.
Back then, the company had settled COPPA allegations involving Musical.ly for $5.7 million and promised to take measures preventing children under 13 from creating accounts.
However, according to the allegations, TikTok still struggled with identifying and removing underage users even after employees raised concerns about their presence on the platform.
Policy changes
Changes in registration policies raised concerns
The lawsuit also claimed that TikTok had changed its registration policies in ways that made it harder to determine if users were old enough to join the service.
Just days before the settlement, Bloomberg reported that TikTok had disabled an algorithmic safeguard for about 10% of US users as part of an experiment.
The measure was meant to minimize the risk of users being exposed to harmful or potentially damaging content.